August 4, 2024 | By Alex Nietem, WOO Sprint Car PR

Larson sweeps Iron Man 55 weekend

PEVELY, Mo. — There seems to be no stopping Kyle Larson at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55.

To open Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 weekend on Friday Larson pieced together a miraculous charge from 21st to victory in 30 laps. He punctuated that performance with a last lap, last corner pass to seal the deal. That marked the longest drive to a win with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars in 11 years.

The stage set for “Yung Money” on Saturday was a 12th place starting position with 55 laps to get the job done. Looking at the math from the night before, the task seemed like a simple one. But of course, driving through a field with the country’s best Sprint Car drivers in it two nights in a row is far from easy. But Larson managed to pull it off anyway.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion methodically picked his way to the front over the course of the longest race in laps on the 2024 World of Outlaws calendar. It started with a strong first rotation that saw him go from 12th to ninth. Six circuits later he cracked the top five. And then on Lap 44 he slipped under race-long leader Giovanni Scelzi to take the top spot and then sped away.

“I was just fortunate enough to get a good initial start and kind of be the first one to the top to get to fifth,” Larson said. “I was really struggling there before the open red, so that was nice to be able to get Paul (Silva) to turn some wrenches on this thing and get me freed up. That really allowed me to kind of get through the waves in (Turn) 1 and get through the middle and get pointed off of (Turn) 2 much better.

“That was a fun race. I hope all of you fans enjoyed that. Ironman 55 is probably my favorite Sprint Car race of the year. It’s tough, long. I really enjoy these long races. Cool to three-peat this.”

The three-peat Larson mentioned is due to the fact that he’s won all three Ironman 55 editions that he’s entered (2020, 2023, and 2024). The three wins ties Craig Dollansky’s record mark for the most that had stood alone since he topped three straight from 2011 to 2013. He’s now up to five wins in seven tries at I-55 with The Greatest Show on Dirt, putting him just one checkered flag away from tying Sammy Swindell and Brad Sweet for the most. It also moves the Pevely, MO bullring within one of Knoxville Raceway for the winningest track on Larson’s World of Outlaws résumé.

He passed a total of 31 Sprint Cars over the course of 85 Feature laps through the two nights and banked $37,000.

Giovanni Scelzi and Donny Schatz led the field to green for the 55-lapper. Scelzi used the pole position to pull ahead of Schatz and lead the opening lap.

Scelzi managed to stretch out the advantage a bit through the early laps. Schatz settled into second with Carson Macedo in third. A little way behind them Larson began his journey through the field.

Even once traffic became a factor Schatz struggled to find the speed necessary to catch Scelzi. One lap he’d cut into the advantage, and the next Scelzi would pad it again.

Macedo used a restart with 34 laps remaining to muscle by Schatz for second shortly before a red flag ended the night for a pair of frontrunners. Contact with a lapped car sent fourth-running Corey Day into Michael Kofoid and sent Day upside down.

The stoppage turned into an open red to allow teams to refuel, and on the restart Schatz found his way back into second as Larson jumped into third. And then a restart with 22 laps remaining gave Larson the opportunity he needed to snatch second from Schatz, leaving only Scelzi between himself and a weekend sweep.

Larson patiently worked the low and middle grooves of the racetrack as Scelzi stayed committed to the top. Little by little Larson chipped away, and on Lap 44 he pulled the trigger on a slider that stuck for the top spot. From there Larson never looked back on his way to a record-tying third Ironman 55.

“I was actually really surprised about the restart after the fuel stop,” Larson recalled. “I almost got to second into (Turn) 3 by diamonding (Turns) 1 and 2. I didn’t expect that, so I knew my car was better right away. I knew I needed to take advantage of that. I lined up third, caution came right back out, and the bottom was better. My engine took off really good, and then I just kind of paced and hoped for no caution because I didn’t want to be on the outside for a restart. It just worked out really good for us.”

Donny Schatz brought the Tony Stewart/Curb Agajanian Racing No. 15 home second. The 10-time World of Outlaws champion continues to bang on the door of an Ironman 55 as the dumbbell trophy has eluded him to this point. Saturday marked five runner-up finishes in the grueling race.

“Every time I was on the outside I was getting passed by cars on the inside,” Schatz said of restarts. “Being on the inside of the second row was probably better on those restarts. We capitalized on it, just tried to move around the racetrack. I guess I’m just glad that’s over with a decent run. It was pretty demanding. It feels like 200-degrees in the car. I’m not used to that, but that’s the way it goes. It was a good race. Kyle did a good job.”

Rounding out the Ironman 55 podium was Carson Macedo in the Jason Johnson Racing machine. The Lemoore, CA native continues to be one of the most consistent drivers at I-55 with his fifth consecutive top five run and seventh podium in the last 10 tries at the bullring.

“I think Philip Dietz, Adam Zimmerman, and Robby McQuinn gave me a great race car,” Macedo said. “I feel like I was pretty versatile. I’d get to bouncing a little bit through the middle, but I could make a lot of speed up top. I just had one big mistake on my part. I think I got a little eager on the fuel and kind of maybe got it too loaded up. Then when I went to fire off on that restart there and kind of got stuck out there and let Donny and Kyle get by.”

Giovanni Scelzi and Logan Schuchart completed the top five.

Larson’s run from 12th to the win also earned him back-to-back KSE Racing Hard Chargers.

Carson Macedo claimed his Series leading ninth Simpson Quick Time of 2024 and the 42nd of his career in Sea Foam Qualifying.

NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Sheldon Haudenschild, Carson Macedo, and Logan Schuchart. Milton Hershey School Heat Two went to Giovanni Scelzi.

Giovanni Scelzi topped the Toyota Racing Dash.

Jessie Attard 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 roll to Knoxville Raceway for the 63rd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s on August 7-10. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

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



RESULTS

NOS Energy Drink Feature (55 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[12]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[2]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[3]; 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[8]; 6. 2-David Gravel[10]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid[14]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog[13]; 9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]; 10. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[4]; 11. 53-Jessie Attard[21]; 12. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[19]; 13. 20G-Noah Gass[16]; 14. 34-Sterling Cling[18]; 15. 70-Kraig Kinser[11]; 16. 37B-Bryce Norris[23]; 17. 6-Kelby Watt[17]; 18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[9]; 19. 14-Corey Day[5]; 20. 37-Ayden Gatewood[15]; 21. 21R-Gunner Ramey[20]; 22. 7A-Will Armitage[7]; 23. 50K-Thomas Meseraull[24]; 24. 24T-Christopher Thram[22]

MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 53-Jessie Attard[1]; 2. 24T-Christopher Thram[5]; 3. 37B-Bryce Norris[4]; 4. 50K-Thomas Meseraull[2]; 5. 5-Karter Sarff[3]; 6. 22M-Rees Moran[8]; 7. 28-Brian Paulus[7]; 8. 23B-Brian Bell[9]; 9. 51B-Joe B Miller[6]; 10. 7S-Landon Crawley[13]; 11. 3N-Jake Neuman[12]; 12. 77-Geoff Dodge[10]; 13. 28K-Korbin Keith[14]; 14. 1-Trevin Littleton[11]

C Feature (10 Laps): 1. 7S-Landon Crawley[2]; 2. 28K-Korbin Keith[1]; 3. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[4]; 4. 97-Scotty Milan[6]; 5. 79-Gage Montgomery[5]; 6. 29-Brayton Lynch[8]; 7. 7B-Hunter Barron[3]; 8. 31X-Joey Moughan[7]; 9. 83SR-James McFadden[9]

Toyota Dash (8 Laps): 1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[1]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[3]; 4. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[4]; 5. 14-Corey Day[8]; 6. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]; 7. 7A-Will Armitage[5]; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 2. 14-Corey Day[2]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[4]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog[6]; 5. 6-Kelby Watt[5]; 6. 5-Karter Sarff[7]; 7. 53-Jessie Attard[3]; 8. 23B-Brian Bell[8]; 9. 28K-Korbin Keith[9]; 10. 79-Gage Montgomery[10]; 11. 83SR-James McFadden[11]

Milton Hershey School Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 2. 7A-Will Armitage[2]; 3. 70-Kraig Kinser[3]; 4. 37-Ayden Gatewood[4]; 5. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[5]; 6. 24T-Christopher Thram[6]; 7. 28-Brian Paulus[7]; 8. 1-Trevin Littleton[8]; 9. 7B-Hunter Barron[9]; 10. 31X-Joey Moughan[10]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[1]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[2]; 3. 2-David Gravel[4]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid[3]; 5. 34-Sterling Cling[6]; 6. 37B-Bryce Norris[7]; 7. 50K-Thomas Meseraull[5]; 8. 77-Geoff Dodge[9]; 9. 7S-Landon Crawley[8]; 10. 97-Scotty Milan[10]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[3]; 2. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[1]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[2]; 4. 20G-Noah Gass[7]; 5. 21R-Gunner Ramey[4]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller[5]; 7. 22M-Rees Moran[8]; 8. 3N-Jake Neuman[6]; 9. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[10]; 10. 29-Brayton Lynch[9]

Sea Foam Qualifying A (2 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:10.600[9]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:10.656[6]; 3. 14-Corey Day, 00:10.667[10]; 4. 7A-Will Armitage, 00:10.727[2]; 5. 53-Jessie Attard, 00:10.741[5]; 6. 70-Kraig Kinser, 00:10.808[4]; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 00:10.819[1]; 8. 37-Ayden Gatewood, 00:10.824[17]; 9. 6-Kelby Watt, 00:10.829[3]; 10. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, 00:10.832[8]; 11. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:10.834[21]; 12. 24T-Christopher Thram, 00:10.834[7]; 13. 5-Karter Sarff, 00:10.945[20]; 14. 28-Brian Paulus, 00:10.998[13]; 15. 23B-Brian Bell, 00:11.008[11]; 16. 1-Trevin Littleton, 00:11.242[12]; 17. 28K-Korbin Keith, 00:11.274[18]; 18. 7B-Hunter Barron, 00:11.289[19]; 19. 79-Gage Montgomery, 00:11.377[15]; 20. 31X-Joey Moughan, 01:00.000[14]; 21. 83SR-James McFadden, 01:00.001[16]

Sea Foam Qualifying B (2 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:10.552[18]; 2. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:10.582[5]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:10.645[14]; 4. 57-Kyle Larson, 00:10.656[1]; 5. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:10.665[3]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:10.697[2]; 7. 2-David Gravel, 00:10.781[12]; 8. 21R-Gunner Ramey, 00:10.790[6]; 9. 50K-Thomas Meseraull, 00:10.804[8]; 10. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:10.810[9]; 11. 34-Sterling Cling, 00:10.814[17]; 12. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:10.878[7]; 13. 37B-Bryce Norris, 00:10.917[4]; 14. 20G-Noah Gass, 00:10.956[10]; 15. 7S-Landon Crawley, 00:10.971[19]; 16. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:11.073[16]; 17. 77-Geoff Dodge, 00:11.132[13]; 18. 29-Brayton Lynch, 00:11.153[15]; 19. 97-Scotty Milan, 00:11.156[20]; 20. 42P-Preston Perlmutter, 00:11.459[11]


==========================================================================================================================



KARTER SARFF WINS SECOND STRAIGHT XTREME OUTLAW MIDGETS MAIN AT FEDERATED I-55


PEVELY, MO.  – Karter Sarff’s first-ever win with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota came at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 last year. Fast forward to 2024, and he’s swept the track’s most prestigious event.

Sarff, the 21-year-old racer from Mason City, IL, led flag-to-flag for the win Friday night and then made it back-to-back trips to Victory Lane with his fourth Series victory Saturday, taking the lead from Ryan Timms late in the race and leading the rest of the way untouched to claim the $7,500 grand prize – the largest winner’s share in Series history.

“It’s just super cool, especially with this night paying $7,500 to win,” Sarff said. “Obviously, the Saturday race is the big one to win – I feel like there’s a lot more people here, and the [World of] Outlaws run the Ironman 55.

“It’s just a prestigious race and it’s turning into a prestigious Midget race too; just happy to put my name in the record books [and get my] biggest Midget win this year so far.”

In seven career starts with the Series at I-55, Sarff has won three of them. Saturday’s win, co-sacntioned by the POWRi National Midget League, counted as his fourth of the season with the Xtreme Outlaw Series – second-most only to points leader Cannon McIntosh – and sixth of his career.

The driver known as “The Shark” accomplished the feat all while pulling double duty on both nights of the event, driving his own No. 21K Midget and the Chase Briscoe Racing No. 5 Sprint Car with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

“I was already worn out from running the Sprint Car all night too,” Sarff said. “That was really tiring, and it just seemed non-stop all night long. I was tired before the race even started for the Midget Feature. I had noodle arms the whole race.”

While Sarff was on top in the end, points leaders Cannon McIntosh and Ryan Timms opened the Feature action. McIntosh led the opening four circuits around the 1/3-mile track before hitting a rut in Turn 1 and coughing-up the top spot to Timms.

Timms took the top spot and began to run with it before a red flag halted the action on Lap 9. On the restart, Timms hit a bump in the track entering Turn 3 and gave the lead back to McIntosh, but only for two corners as Timms came right back with a move of his own around the bottom of Turns 1-2 to regain the lead.

“I was so good on the top there before the red and was running Ryan down just that little bit the couple laps I changed my line,” McIntosh, 21, of Bixby, OK, said. “We had the red and just could never fire off the same. I feel like we sat too long.”

Meanwhile, Sarff was working on his push to the head of the field. Sitting third for a restart on Lap 17, Sarff threw a slider of his own on McIntosh in Turns 3-4 for the second spot, racing through the middle groove.

“I thought for sure Cannon would rip it through the middle there right in front of me and kinda block it,” Sarff said. “He just went up and I was able to do the same exact thing.”

Now riding second, Sarff got his first look at the lead on a restart three laps later. Timms led the field into Turn 3 after taking the green and jumped a rut again, allowing Sarff to scoot by out of Turn 4.

Though Timms retook the spot with a slide job in Turns 1-2, he hit yet another bump in Turn 1 on Lap 23 and shot up the track, opening the door for Sarff once more down low to take the lead for good.

“I got to Ryan and got real lucky with him hitting the holes wrong,” Sarff said.  “I could just get through them really good; our stuff is usually always good through the rough.”

“I knew the bottom was coming in and I saw the 21 got to second and I knew he’s really good on the bottom here,” Timms, 17, of Oklahoma City, OK, said. “I knew he was gonna be there, but I thought as long as I didn’t hop to where it would screw me up too bad and get could get under us, then I’d be fine. Sure enough, that’s what happened.”

Now armed with the race lead, Sarff began to distance himself from the field. He made quick work of the lapped traffic in front of him, and by the time he crossed under the checkered flag, he held a 1.6-second gap over Timms.

McIntosh crossed the stripe in third, re-entering the top-five after his streak of 18 consecutive top-five runs came to a halt with a sixth-place run Friday.

“Good podium finish but still disappointing for leading there at the beginning, losing the lead, getting it back and losing it again,” McIntosh said. “Obviously wanted more when you start on the pole; the only goal is to win.”

Seventh-starting Zach Daum climbed to finish fourth aboard the Trifecta Motorsports No. 7U while Thomas Meseraull drove the Engler Machine & Tool No. 7x to round out the top five.

Joe Wirth earned the Whitz Racing Products Quick Time Award in Qualifying. Toyota Racing Heat 1 was won by McIntosh, TJ Forged Heat 2 was won by Sarff and Heat 3 went to Gavin Miller.


UP NEXT:  The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets will take the next three days away from the track to rest, repair and make the trip east to Pennsylvania for the start of Milton Hershey School Appalachian Midget Week. The four-day stretch of racing begins Wednesday, Aug. 7, at Action Track USA in Kutztown, PA.

Tickets for all Midget Week races will be on sale at the gate on race day. If you can’ be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.



MIDGETS RESULTS

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff[3]; 2. 67-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[1]; 4. 7U-Zach Daum[7]; 5. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[4]; 6. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[16]; 7. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[5]; 8. 40-Chase McDermand[23]; 9. 14S-Tyler Edwards[9]; 10. 55-Trevor Cline[11]; 11. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[12]; 12. 71-Jade Avedisian[10]; 13. 97-Gavin Miller[6]; 14. 98-Gunnar Setser[8]; 15. 50-Daniel Adler[17]; 16. 51B-Joe B Miller[15]; 17. 44-Branigan Roark[21]; 18. 7-Shannon McQueen[20]; 19. 77-Joe Wirth[14]; 20. 66-Jayden Clay[24]; 21. 33-Jacob McFarlin[22]; 22. 72J-Sam Johnson[19]; 23. 5U-Peter Smith[18]; 24. 56D-Mitchell Davis[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 2. 67-Ryan Timms[4]; 3. 14S-Tyler Edwards[2]; 4. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[1]; 5. 50-Daniel Adler[7]; 6. 72J-Sam Johnson[6]; 7. 33-Jacob McFarlin[8]; 8. 44-Branigan Roark[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff[2]; 2. 7U-Zach Daum[1]; 3. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[4]; 4. 55-Trevor Cline[6]; 5. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[7]; 6. 56D-Mitchell Davis[3]; 7. 7-Shannon McQueen[5]; 8. 66-Jayden Clay[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Gavin Miller[1]; 2. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[3]; 3. 98-Gunnar Setser[2]; 4. 71-Jade Avedisian[7]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[5]; 6. 5U-Peter Smith[6]; 7. 77-Joe Wirth[4]; 8. 40-Chase McDermand[8]

Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 67-Ryan Timms, 00:13.112[3]; 2. 71K-Cannon McIntosh, 00:13.113[2]; 3. 14S-Tyler Edwards, 00:13.302[6]; 4. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg, 00:13.313[1]; 5. 44-Branigan Roark, 00:13.442[4]; 6. 72J-Sam Johnson, 00:13.446[8]; 7. 50-Daniel Adler, 00:13.568[7]; 8. 33-Jacob McFarlin, 00:13.907[5]

Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold, 00:12.885[4]; 2. 56D-Mitchell Davis, 00:12.928[6]; 3. 21K-Karter Sarff, 00:12.931[5]; 4. 7U-Zach Daum, 00:12.993[2]; 5. 7-Shannon McQueen, 00:13.214[7]; 6. 55-Trevor Cline, 00:13.229[8]; 7. 67K-Ashton Torgerson, 00:13.253[1]; 8. 66-Jayden Clay, 00:13.546[3]

Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 77-Joe Wirth, 00:12.830[4]; 2. 7X-Thomas Meseraull, 00:12.864[3]; 3. 98-Gunnar Setser, 00:12.920[6]; 4. 97-Gavin Miller, 00:12.930[2]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.043[1]; 6. 5U-Peter Smith, 00:13.147[5]; 7. 71-Jade Avedisian, 00:13.172[7]; 8. 40-Chase McDermand, 00:13.172[8]