NHRA driver comments, “How bout the one dude risking getting run over to make sure he put the fire out on the sprint car up by the wall.”
On Thursday night, it took about an hour to run the first lap of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series feature at Knoxville Raceway. That’s no exaggeration, multiple large accidents took place in preliminary action of the Knoxville Nationals.
Watch the Knoxville Raceway crash video below.
It started with a rain shower late in the afternoon. That pushed the start deep into the night.
Knoxville, IA is farming land with heavy dirt. Add rain, and the track is likely to be heavy, all night. That’s actually what happened.
It was bad fast all night.
Red Flag #1: The first major incident involved Parker Price-Miller. He jumped over the right rear of the car ahead of him entering turn one. Price-Miller slammed the wall and rolled, multiple times. The driver climbed from the car after knocking out of the caution lights on a fence post.
It didn’t take long for another red flag to be displayed. In fact, it took exactly 1 lap.
Big crash in Knoxville Nationals
Red Flag #2: Carson Macedo looked to the inside with a late move at corner entry on Paul McMahan for 4th. McMahan pushed Macedo over the inside berm.
Macedo bounced off the berm and back into McMahan. Both drivers were sent flipping into the outside wall. The fuel tank of Macedo’s car was ejected from the rest of the machine.
Marcus Dumesny rolled into the scene with nowhere to go. He was on the cushion and on the gas in an attempt to cut under the crashing cars. Instead, he slammed the fuel tank of McMahan’s parked machine.
Instantly, McMahan’s car caught fire. Sammy Swindell was also caught in the scene and sent into a flip. Kerry Madsen flipped as well and he came to a rest upside down, on his wing.
Kyle Larson won the B-Main. As he was at the tail of the field for the start of the feature, he had to drive through the crash.
And that’s an understatement, Larson literally snaked his way through the crash. He jumped on the brakes, turned toward the middle of the track as cars flipped on both sides of him. Larson come out the other end, without a scratch.
NHRA driver Ron Capps gives nod to safety workers
Seconds after the chaos came to a close, Knoxville Raceway safety workers ran onto the track. Before they reached the car of McMahan, the fire extinguishers were already going. Within seconds, what could have been a very bad fuel fire, was under control.
The work of the safety team caught the eye of NHRA racer Ron Capps who stated, “Hey Knoxville Raceway / World of Outlaws…. Plz get me the names and # of these safety workers so we can send them open invite to any of our NHRA races. How bout the one dude risking getting run over to make sure he put the fire out on the sprint car up by the wall.”
Kyle Larson comments
After this crash, Larson began his charge through the field. He made it all the way to 2nd, just shy of victory.
On paper, Larson started the feature in the 21st place after winning the B-Main. However, with all the early crashes, Larson feels he started closer to 10th.
“I got extremely lucky missing that big wreck,” Larson admitted from the podium.
He added, “That deal took out a lot of good people, so I think I came from like 10th, you know, not the very back. This is my favorite week of the year. I can’t wait for Saturday.”
Big crash in Knoxville Nationals
Links
Kyle Larson | Paul McMahan | Carson Macedo | Sammy Swindell | Kerry Madsen | Ron Capps | Knoxville Raceway | World of Outlaws
