KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Carson Macedo was looking like a confident driver on Thursday night at Knoxville Raceway, and after winning the preliminary feature and locking into Saturday’s main event, he sounded like one.
“I think in the past running these races like the Eldora Million and Knoxville, the National Open and the Kings Royal, I would get myself so spun out,” the driver of the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 said. “You try to reinvent the wheel and think you have to be way better than you normally are.
“But the truth is that you race against the best guys in the country, you just execute and do your job the best you can do. I feel like that’s what I did tonight. I tried to be calm, have fun.”
Macedo will start fifth on Saturday.
“It definitely gives me a lot of confidence,” he added. “I feel like the Saturday main is so tough, 50 laps, with a break in the middle, starting in the top three rows, I feel like my car is good enough. I’m happy to be locked in and starting in a good spot.”
Abreu Is ‘The Guy To Beat’
• Kyle Larson, who will start on the pole Saturday night, believes outside-front-row starter Rico Abreu is the driver to beat in the 50-lap, $185,000-to-win main event.
“Rico is the guy to beat this week,” the 2021 Nationals winner said flatly. “There are a lot of good guys, but Rico has been by far the fastest car here at Knoxville. He’s passed more people here this year every time he’s been here and the races he’s won he has dominated. He’ll be the guy to beat, but I think we have a good shot.”
• Rico Abreu was the fast qualifier on Thursday with a best lap of 15.703 seconds. Brad Sweet, Buddy Kofoid, Logan Schuchart and Ian Madsen completed the top five qualifiers.
“It is important for us as a team to execute in these situations and we got a good qualifying run in there tonight,” Abreu said. “Our car has been performing well the last few weeks.”
From The Outside Listening In
• It’s interesting to hear how drivers use their outside surroundings to help them inside the race car.
“I could see there on the big screen that I was getting a little bit of a gap by running the top,” said Carson Macedo.
Kyle Larson gained information from track announcers.
“We got the red flags and I could hear the announcers talking about the points situation,” Larson said in commenting that it played a role in his race strategy.
The Odd Men Out
• Justin Peck crashed in Wednesday night’s feature and destroyed his primary Buch Motorsports ride. He got more bad luck on Thursday night.
Peck ended up in a four-way tie for 14th in overall qualifying points. As a result of having the worst feature finish of the drivers involved (Chase Randall, Anthony Macri and Brad Sweet), Peck was the odd man out. While the other three made the main event, Peck starts on the pole for the B main in a back up car.
• Brian Brown had a disappointing night on Thursday at Knoxville Raceway. Brown, who won last week’s 360 Nationals, qualified 20th and finished 11th in the feature. He will start fifth in Saturday night’s B Main.
Other Notables
• Four of Thursday night’s top eight qualifiers transferred directly to the feature from their heat race, including Kyle Larson and Logan Schuchart, who each made it through the fourth heat race from the fourth row.
• Jason Johnson Racing has won the Knoxville Nationals twice (Jason Johnson & David Gravel) and Carson Macedo has a lot of faith in his team.
“I’m biased, but Philip Dietz is the best mechanic in the game,” Macedo said. “He is incredible at what he does.”