August 3, 2024 | By Alex Nietem, WOO Sprint Car PR

Kyle Larson charges from 21st to victory at I-55

PEVELY, Mo. — Kyle Larson continues to do things behind the wheel of a Sprint Car that will be talked about for years and years.

The Elk Grove, CA native has already achieved so much in his career despite seldom being a full-time Sprint Car driver due to NASCAR commitments. A 2011 Gold Cup Race of Champions triumph at only 19 years old. A pair of NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals. A Kings Royal. A 12-win World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car season in only 26 Feature starts in 2020.

Those are only a few of the many accomplishments Larson has chalked up, and he pulled something off on Friday night that’ll go down as one of the best drives he’s ever put together.

“Yung Money” lined up 21st for the 30-lap Feature at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 after having to go to the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown and winning it. A victory in the main event was hardly on his mind when he rolled out for it. Maybe a strong charge for a solid finish, but a win? That didn’t seem likely.

And then one by one Larson started to pick off cars. By Lap 8 he’d cracked the top 10. But even 10 laps later when he entered the top five, Victory Lane still seemed out of reach. Then came a pivotal restart.

Larson roared into third in two circuits after restarting fifth with 11 laps to go. Then on Lap 26 Sheldon Haudenschild tripped up and allowed him by for second. With only four laps remaining, all that stood between the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion and completing an unforgettable drive to victory was James McFadden.

And even as McFadden took the white flag he appeared to be too far ahead with nearly a full second advantage. But then hope arose down the back straightaway. A lapped car slipped in front of the Roth Motorsports No. 83SR exiting Turn 2 allowing Larson to close in. McFadden went to slide the car in Turn 3, and Larson stuck the Silva Motorsports No. 57 to the bottom. They both picked their front wheels up in a drag race down the front straightaway, and Larson edged him out by .053 seconds.

The crowd went wild. He’d really pulled off the unthinkable. From the Last Chance Showdown to Victory Lane. Don’t put anything past Kyle Larson.

“I’m out of breath,” Larson said. “I’ve been screaming the whole time since I got the checkered flag. I can’t say enough about Paul, Trevor, Doug, everybody on this team for working so hard. We’ve been terrible, and really, really bad tonight, too. And they’ve just been working hard, trying to get the car better each time. I felt like we were pretty good there in the Feature. I felt like we could move around, get my wheels underneath me, and get grip through the center on restarts. I’m just super thankful. This is amazing. There was a kid that came up during the Midget A-main and said, ‘You think you’re going to win tonight?’ And I said, ‘No.’ I did not think we would win. So, this is pretty amazing.”

Larson is up to 33 career victories with The Greatest Show on Dirt. His fourth win in six tries at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 equals it with Attica Raceway Park as the second winningest track on his Series résumé. He’s behind only Sammy Swindell and Brad Sweet (six wins apiece) and Steve Kinser and Craig Dollansky (five wins apiece) on the track’s World of Outlaws victory list. The drive from 21st marked the farthest back someone has won a World of Outlaws race from since Donny Schatz’s legendary drive to the Knoxville Nationals title in 2013.

Sheldon Haudenschild and James McFadden brought the field to green, and it was McFadden getting the early advantage on the outside.

The Australian pieced together a nearly perfect race. McFadden knifed his way through traffic in search of his first I-55 victory. Right when it seemed Haudenschild might be able to close in, McFadden added another slower car to the buffer between the two.

Even when Larson got to second with only a few laps remaining, McFadden’s lead didn’t seem in jeopardy. But one small slip from a lapped car on the final lap was enough to break his momentum down the back straightaway and hurt his entry angle into Turn 3. Larson had one shot, and he took full advantage to steal the checkered flag on the final lap by putting together a perfect set of corners in the Silva Motorsports No. 57.

“I could see those two (McFadden and Haudenschild) running the top in (Turns) 3 and 4,” Larson explained. “And I knew my opportunity to get by them was if they made a mistake in (Turns) 3 and 4. Then we caught traffic, and all those lappers were on the bottom. I thought I probably wouldn’t get there. Then he got hung up real tight behind the lapper off (Turn) 2, kind of choked his momentum and forced him to the bottom. And I figured his angle was too bad to be able to stick it and he would probably be cautious or nervous of Sheldon or somebody coming up top in (Turns) 3 and 4. So, I figured he’d drive across, and I knew I just needed to square up my corner and just try and grab the moisture in the middle of the straightaway. I was able to do that and just edge him out.”

After leading all but the final few feet, McFadden was forced to settle for second in the Dennis and Teresa Roth-owned machine. He handled the heartbreak well and is confident an I-55 breakthrough is coming.

“I ran the top, and Noah (Gass) was sort of running the middle, and I thought it was all good because he left me a lane,” McFadden said. “He just lost a bunch of traction off the corner, and I don’t know if he got into the fence a little bit. It just stopped him and parked him there, and I ran into the back of him. I peeled left to get under him, but my angle was sort of bad to get in there, so I had to slide across. That’s racing, mate. That’s the way it goes. Our car was fast. You win them that way, you lose them that way. We’ll come back tomorrow. I think this place owes me one.”

Rounding out the top three was Sheldon Haudenschild in the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 17. The result marked his 10th World of Outlaws podium at the Pevely, MO oval. The result was also his third top three in the last five races.

“I feel like I ran a really careful race,” Haudenschild commented. “I really didn’t push the limits at all. That curb was tricky. I didn’t want to run her too hard and wad her up. I think my car was really close. James did a great job that whole race, and obviously Kyle was really good. I probably should’ve just moved around a bit more at the end and tried to get back to the bottom.”

Carson Macedo and Donny Schatz completed the top five.

Larson’s incredible drive from 21st to first also earned him the KSE Racing Hard Charger.

Sheldon Haudenschild claimed his second consecutive Simpson Quick Time and the 34th of his career in Sea Foam Qualifying.

NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Michael Kofoid, Logan Schuchart, and Kelby Watt. Milton Hershey School Heat Two went Carson Macedo.

Sheldon Haudenschild won the Toyota Racing Dash.

Kyle Larson won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Brock Zearfoss.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are right back at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 (Pevely, MO) for the $25,000-to-win Ironman 55 finale on Saturday, August 3. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.


RESULTS

NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[21]; 2. 83SR-James McFadden[2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz[9]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart[8]; 7. 2-David Gravel[13]; 8. 83-Michael Kofoid[5]; 9. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[6]; 10. 49-Brad Sweet[11]; 11. 17B-Bill Balog[10]; 12. 6-Kelby Watt[7]; 13. 20G-Noah Gass[14]; 14. 7S-Landon Crawley[22]; 15. 70-Kraig Kinser[18]; 16. 24T-Christopher Thram[17]; 17. 53-Jessie Attard[24]; 18. 51B-Joe B Miller[19]; 19. 22M-Rees Moran[16]; 20. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[23]; 21. 24D-Danny Sams III[12]; 22. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[3]; 23. 23B-Brian Bell[15]; 24. 14-Corey Day[20]

MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[3]; 2. 7S-Landon Crawley[1]; 3. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[6]; 4. 53-Jessie Attard[5]; 5. 7A-Will Armitage[4]; 6. 34-Sterling Cling[7]; 7. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[11]; 8. 21R-Gunner Ramey[8]; 9. 37B-Bryce Norris[10]; 10. 50K-Thomas Meseraull[9]; 11. 3N-Jake Neuman[16]; 12. 77-Geoff Dodge[15]; 13. 97-Scotty Milan[13]; 14. 28-Brian Paulus[14]; 15. 79-Gage Montgomery[12]; 16. 99-Skylar Gee[2]

C Feature (10 Laps): 1. 77-Geoff Dodge[1]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[6]; 3. 5-Karter Sarff[5]; 4. 37-Ayden Gatewood[2]; 5. 29-Brayton Lynch[4]; 6. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[7]; 7. 1-Trevin Littleton[8]; 8. 7B-Hunter Barron[3]; 9. 8S-Steve Short[9]; 10. 28K-Korbin Keith[10]

Toyota Dash (8 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 2. 83SR-James McFadden[3]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[2]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 5. 83-Michael Kofoid[4]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]; 7. 6-Kelby Watt[5]; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz[3]; 4. 2-David Gravel[4]; 5. 24T-Christopher Thram[6]; 6. 57-Kyle Larson[7]; 7. 34-Sterling Cling[8]; 8. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[9]; 9. 77-Geoff Dodge[5]; 10. 5-Karter Sarff[10]; 11. 8S-Steve Short[11]

Milton Hershey School Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 2. 83SR-James McFadden[1]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[5]; 4. 23B-Brian Bell[4]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[6]; 6. 53-Jessie Attard[7]; 7. 50K-Thomas Meseraull[9]; 8. 97-Scotty Milan[8]; 9. 7B-Hunter Barron[11]; 10. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[10]; 11. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog[4]; 4. 20G-Noah Gass[6]; 5. 70-Kraig Kinser[3]; 6. 7A-Will Armitage[5]; 7. 21R-Gunner Ramey[9]; 8. 79-Gage Montgomery[10]; 9. 37-Ayden Gatewood[8]; 10. 3N-Jake Neuman[7]; 11. 1-Trevin Littleton[11]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 6-Kelby Watt[1]; 2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[3]; 3. 24D-Danny Sams III[9]; 4. 22M-Rees Moran[5]; 5. 14-Corey Day[4]; 6. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[7]; 7. 37B-Bryce Norris[6]; 8. 28-Brian Paulus[8]; 9. 29-Brayton Lynch[10]; 10. 99-Skylar Gee[2]; 11. 28K-Korbin Keith[11]

Sea Foam Qualifying A (2 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:10.507[18]; 2. 83SR-James McFadden, 00:10.543[21]; 3. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:10.652[6]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:10.689[14]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:10.697[19]; 6. 7S-Landon Crawley, 00:10.714[15]; 7. 2-David Gravel, 00:10.720[1]; 8. 23B-Brian Bell, 00:10.735[20]; 9. 77-Geoff Dodge, 00:10.752[11]; 10. 49-Brad Sweet, 00:10.762[2]; 11. 24T-Christopher Thram, 00:10.802[4]; 12. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:10.803[22]; 13. 57-Kyle Larson, 00:10.839[10]; 14. 53-Jessie Attard, 00:10.855[9]; 15. 34-Sterling Cling, 00:10.913[7]; 16. 97-Scotty Milan, 00:10.982[12]; 17. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, 00:11.031[17]; 18. 50K-Thomas Meseraull, 00:11.040[8]; 19. 5-Karter Sarff, 00:11.048[16]; 20. 42P-Preston Perlmutter, 00:11.343[3]; 21. 8S-Steve Short, 00:11.427[13]; 22. 7B-Hunter Barron, 00:11.470[5]

Sea Foam Qualifying B (2 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:10.650[6]; 2. 6-Kelby Watt, 00:10.796[8]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:10.828[15]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:10.832[11]; 5. 70-Kraig Kinser, 00:10.833[1]; 6. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 00:10.833[3]; 7. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:10.846[13]; 8. 14-Corey Day, 00:10.904[20]; 9. 7A-Will Armitage, 00:10.973[9]; 10. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:10.974[4]; 11. 20G-Noah Gass, 00:11.103[21]; 12. 37B-Bryce Norris, 00:11.110[14]; 13. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:11.114[2]; 14. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:11.118[17]; 15. 37-Ayden Gatewood, 00:11.149[10]; 16. 28-Brian Paulus, 00:11.179[5]; 17. 21R-Gunner Ramey, 00:11.193[16]; 18. 24D-Danny Sams III, 00:11.225[18]; 19. 79-Gage Montgomery, 00:11.284[12]; 20. 29-Brayton Lynch, 00:11.325[7]; 21. 1-Trevin Littleton, 00:11.498[19]; 22. 28K-Korbin Keith, 00:11.707[22]


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KARTER SARFF DOMINATES XTREME OUTLAW MIDGETS AT FEDERATED I-55 RACEWAY

PEVELY, Mo.  – There’s something about Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 that just clicks with Karter Sarff. Two years in-a-row, he’s gone to Victory Lane at the Missouri oval with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota.

Sarff, the 21-year-old reigning champion of the POWRi National Midget League from Mason City, IL, won on opening night of Ironman 55 weekend last year and did it again Friday night, leading all 25 laps of the main event to bank the $4,000 grand prize and his third Series victory of the year.

“It’s just one of those tracks that clicks for me, and our stuff just seems to go around here really well,” Sarff said. “I think it’s just a combination of our car always being really good here, and I always have the confidence coming here that we’re gonna be good.”

Sarff was strong from the drop of the green, taking the lead on the opening lap from the pole and immediately going to work on opening up a gap between himself and the field. At its largest, Sarff led by 2.7 seconds before Timms began to reel him in.

As Sarff dipped into lapped traffic, taking the bottom lane around the 1/3-mile oval, Timms took advantage of the open top lane, using the “diamond” line to gain extra speed on corner exit at both ends of the track. Lap-by-lap, Timms cut into Sarff’s gap and with five laps left, only .7 seconds separated them.

“I definitely didn’t want to see a caution,” Sarff said. “I felt like I had a good rhythm going, especially there at the end. I kinda figured out where I needed to be and slowing the car down as the track slowed down. I noticed I got a lot better once I started slowing down.”

Once more, Timms gathered speed from the high side momentum and gave it everything he had in pursuit of Sarff, but in the end was unsuccessful.  

“On that last lap, I followed it all the way around in (Turn) 2 on the top and it was a lot faster doing that than my diamond, at least later on,” Timms said. “Earlier on, the diamond was working and then it kinda just went away.”

Sarff was able to maintain the .7-second gap he had on Timms, despite the long line of lapped traffic he faced throughout the race, most of which was racing directly in his lane on the bottom.

“I was struggling to get around them there for quite a few laps,” Sarff said. “I just started running one lane higher than them and actually figured out that it was better than what I was doing. Part of it helped me out quite a bit.

“If the race would’ve been a little longer, don’t know if we would’ve held on, but I’m excited to get it done.”

Timms crossed the stripe second, garnering his ninth podium finish of the season in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) No. 67. He said there were a few things that might have helped his case in getting to make a move on Sarff for the lead, but he wasn’t able to get close enough to execute.

“I think heavier lapped traffic, or a yellow, or me changing my line – any of those three would have made a difference,” Timms said.

Hayden Reinbold rounded out the podium with his third top-three finish in the last four Series races. Inaugural Series champion Zach Daum climbed climbed from seventh to finish fourth while Ashton Torgerson rounded out the top five.

Gavin Miller won Toyota Heat Race 1, Timms topped TJ Forged Heat 2 and Torgerson won the third and final Heat of the night. Sarff also won his third Whitz Racing Products Quick Time Award of the year for his best lap in Qualifying at 12.768 seconds.


UP NEXT:  The Xtreme Outlaw and POWRi Midgets are back in action at I-55 Saturday night, Aug. 3, for the richest race of the season – $7,500-to-win and $500-to-start.

Tickets are on sale at XtremeOutlawSeries.com. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.


MIDGETS RESULTS

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff[1]; 2. 67-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[3]; 4. 7U-Zach Daum[7]; 5. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[5]; 6. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[12]; 7. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 8. 7-Shannon McQueen[10]; 9. 56D-Mitchell Davis[6]; 10. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[18]; 11. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[11]; 12. 71-Jade Avedisian[9]; 13. 55-Trevor Cline[13]; 14. 14S-Tyler Edwards[16]; 15. 5U-Peter Smith[15]; 16. 50-Daniel Adler[14]; 17. 98-Gunnar Setser[21]; 18. 40-Chase McDermand[24]; 19. 51B-Joe B Miller[17]; 20. 72J-Sam Johnson[19]; 21. 77-Joe Wirth[8]; 22. 44-Branigan Roark[22]; 23. 66-Jayden Clay[23]; 24. 33-Jacob McFarlin[20]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 2. 56D-Mitchell Davis[2]; 3. 71-Jade Avedisian[6]; 4. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[5]; 5. 5U-Peter Smith[1]; 6. 50-Daniel Adler[3]; 7. 40-Chase McDermand[8]; 8. 44-Branigan Roark[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 67-Ryan Timms[2]; 2. 7U-Zach Daum[1]; 3. 21K-Karter Sarff[4]; 4. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[6]; 5. 14S-Tyler Edwards[5]; 6. 55-Trevor Cline[3]; 7. 72J-Sam Johnson[8]; 8. 98-Gunnar Setser[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[1]; 2. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[4]; 3. 77-Joe Wirth[2]; 4. 7-Shannon McQueen[3]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[6]; 6. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[5]; 7. 33-Jacob McFarlin[7]; 8. 66-Jayden Clay[8]

Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 97-Gavin Miller, 00:13.018[2]; 2. 50-Daniel Adler, 00:13.024[1]; 3. 56D-Mitchell Davis, 00:13.045[8]; 4. 5U-Peter Smith, 00:13.078[4]; 5. 7X-Thomas Meseraull, 00:13.111[7]; 6. 71-Jade Avedisian, 00:13.351[6]; 7. 44-Branigan Roark, 00:13.357[3]; 8. (DNS) 40-Chase McDermand

Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff, 00:12.768[2]; 2. 55-Trevor Cline, 00:12.929[7]; 3. 67-Ryan Timms, 00:12.934[8]; 4. 7U-Zach Daum, 00:12.995[4]; 5. 14S-Tyler Edwards, 00:13.134[1]; 6. 71K-Cannon McIntosh, 00:13.169[6]; 7. 98-Gunnar Setser, 00:13.234[3]; 8. 72J-Sam Johnson, 00:13.351[5]

Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold, 00:12.833[4]; 2. 7-Shannon McQueen, 00:12.986[7]; 3. 77-Joe Wirth, 00:13.048[6]; 4. 67K-Ashton Torgerson, 00:13.125[1]; 5. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg, 00:13.173[2]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.461[5]; 7. 33-Jacob McFarlin, 00:13.661[8]; 8. 66-Jayden Clay, 00:13.777[3]

Hot Laps 1: 1. 40-Chase McDermand, 00:12.886[5]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller, 00:13.069[2]; 3. 50-Daniel Adler, 00:13.161[1]; 4. 56D-Mitchell Davis, 00:13.177[8]; 5. 7X-Thomas Meseraull, 00:13.192[7]; 6. 5U-Peter Smith, 00:13.249[4]; 7. 71-Jade Avedisian, 00:13.328[6]; 8. 44-Branigan Roark, 00:13.669[3]

Hot Laps 2: 1. 21K-Karter Sarff, 00:12.908[2]; 2. 7U-Zach Daum, 00:13.069[4]; 3. 55-Trevor Cline, 00:13.114[7]; 4. 71K-Cannon McIntosh, 00:13.153[6]; 5. 67-Ryan Timms, 00:13.279[8]; 6. 14S-Tyler Edwards, 00:13.279[1]; 7. 98-Gunnar Setser, 00:13.302[3]; 8. 72J-Sam Johnson, 00:13.354[5]

Hot Laps 3: 1. 7-Shannon McQueen, 00:13.037[7]; 2. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold, 00:13.118[4]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.342[5]; 4. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg, 00:13.371[2]; 5. 77-Joe Wirth, 00:13.478[6]; 6. 66-Jayden Clay, 00:13.707[3]; 7. 67K-Ashton Torgerson, 00:13.752[1]; 8. 33-Jacob McFarlin, 00:13.840[8]