Kyle Larson started deep in the field for the second consecutive night at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Missouri, and completed a sweep of the weekend to win his third Ironman 55.
“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 in a press release. “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.”
Larson was the defending champion of the race and also won it in 2020.
Starting deep in the field in both races meant Larson needed to pass an incredible 31 cars throughout 85 Feature laps.
The open red caution, a race stoppage during which teams can work on their cars, came with 34 laps remaining, effectively turning the night’s show into two features. Running fourth at the time, Corey Day made contact with Michael “Buddy” Kofoid. Day flipped.
Soon after the restart, Donny Schatz moved into second, with Larson chasing in third. Another restart with 22 laps remaining allowed Larson to get a better jump and advance to second.
As the leader, Giovanni Scelzi remained committed to the high side, Larson inched up on him in the low groove and executed a slide job on Lap 44 of the 55-lap feature.
“I was actually really surprised about the restart after the fuel stop,” Larson continued. “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.”
Schatz followed Larson through to second.
“Every time I was on the outside, I was getting passed by cars on the inside,” Schatz said. “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.”
Carson Macedo rounded out the podium with Scelzi falling back to fourth.
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