Kyle Larson held off 303-time winner, 10-time champion Donny Schatz and the defending World of Outlaws Sprint Car title holder Brad Sweet in route to his third series win of 2022 and his second consecutive at Attica Raceway Park in the Brad Doty Classic.
For Larson, the race was divided into thirds as he spent the first 12 laps chasing down Sweet, another 18 laps running uncontested and the final 10 laps fending off a determined charge by Schatz.
Larson’s final margin of victory on the third-mile dirt track was a slim 0.364-seconds and the outcome was unknown until the final lap.
“When I got to traffic, it was hard to see and I made a mistake with a lapper, then I knew Donny was right with me,” Larson said in a release. “Thankfully, Donny is the cleanest racer in the world and you can always trust him when you’re around him. I wish every other racer would take note from Donny Schatz and the way he gives you respect on the track.
“I knew Donny was quite better in Turns 1 and 2, so I just needed to manage that gap as smart as I could. My car was handling really well, and I could kind of cheat the cushion to limit my mistakes, but I got a little lost in traffic. I feel like Paul Silva keeps giving me better and better cars every time we hit the track. He’s got me plenty excited ahead of Eldora.”
Never running a full-time schedule, Larson has already amassed 27 World of Outlaw wins in 120 starts – a winning percentage of nearly 25 percent.
The race was both a reprise of last year’s Knoxville Nationals, also won by Larson, and a preview of the upcoming Kings Royal which runs Wednesday, July 13 and winds down on Saturday, July 16.
For Schatz, who has only one win this season in the opening round of the season at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., it was chance to get back into winning form. Since then, he has been shut out of Victory Lane in 35 starts with only six podium finishes. One of these came last week at Wilmot (Wis.) Raceway.
“These guys have found a lot of things to get us better lately,” Schatz said. “The folks at Ford have worked extra hard to keep this thing on the edge of my foot to control it better. Racing for the win again feels good, but we’d like to be up there in Victory Lane. I had to go where Kyle wasn’t and my car was actually decent everywhere, but he countered me quite well. I never felt like I was fading or anything, so that’s a good feeling.
“It’s great to start a big week off like this.”
For Sweet, the third-place finish was also bittersweet because he is riding a long winless streak that stands at 25 races. Consistency has kept him in the points’ lead, however, by 56 over Sheldon Haudenschild.
Logan Schuhart in fourth and David Gravel rounded out the top five.
Larson’s win is just part of a great week for Hendrick Motorsports with Chase Elliott winning Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and William Byron earning his first Slinger Nationals late model victory on Tuesday night. Alex Bowman will also get a chance to make his mark this week as one of the contenders for the Kings Royal.
Another crash while leading at Seattle dropped Chase Sexton from the top of the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings while solid performances by Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac allow them to climb the chart and threaten to make this a two-rider battle with six rounds remaining in the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season.Cooper Webb wags his finger at Chase Sexton after winning his heat in Seattle. – Feld Motor Sports
During the race, Webb knew he had ground to make up. Riding behind both Tomac and Sexton early in the Main, he was as far back as fifth on Lap 7 at Seattle. That position would cost him the red plate and give away the advantage he began to build with his first win of the season in Tampa. Sexton is often at his best as he battles from the back and he methodically worked his way through the field. At the end of the feature, he was nearly five seconds off Tomac’s pace, but during the past 45 days, he holds the advantage. A resurgent Tomac that could erase that advantage quickly though.
Tomac struggled in Indianapolis with a neck strain. That contributed to his worst performance of 2023 and his second result outside the top five. He finished third in Detroit two weeks ago, but it was a distant third after finishing off the podium in his heat during that round. In Seattle, it appeared the same thing might happen when Tomac finished third in the prelim behind his two principal competitors Webb and Sexton. The Main was a different story.
Tomac dropped to fourth in the opening laps behind both of his rivals early in the race, but he got around Webb on Lap 2 and kept charging. When Sexton fell to the ground on Lap 11 and dropped to fourth, Tomac was in position to strike. He scored his sixth win of the season to tie James Stewart for second on the all-time wins list. He now shares the red plate with Webb as the rounds wind down.
Sexton has the speed, but he lacks the seasoning of Webb and Tomac. He’s pressing hard on every lap and that has bitten him several times this year. Sexton’s mistakes are costing him with a 10th-place finish at Indy, the loss of seven points at Detroit and a fifth in Seattle as the riders he’s battling stood on the podium. No one seriously questions Sexton’s talent or speed, but ultimately the results are what counts.
Justin Barcia is hitting his stride. He advances two positions this week after scoring his fourth consecutive top-five and second podium in that span of races. Barcia finished between sixth and eighth in five consecutive rounds from Anaheim 2 through Arlington, but he’s mostly avoided controversy and that puts him fourth in this week’s SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Seattle.
Jason Anderson had a solid performance in Seattle, but with a fifth-place finish in his heat and fourth in the Main he just keeps losing a little ground to the leaders. The biggest impact to his standing in the NBC Power Rankings is a 10th-place finish in Indianapolis that will take a while to age out of the 45-day formula. He’s tied for fourth in the championship points with Ken Roczen, who sits sixth in the rankings below. It’s important to be the rider “best in class” with Webb, Tomac and Sexton stealing the show.
The 250 West riders were back in action in Seattle and that gave Jett Lawrence the opportunity to break out of a tie with his brother Hunter Lawrence on the all-time wins list. It also provided Jett the opportunity to take back the top spot in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Seattle.
Jett Lawrence regained the top spot overall in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings with a near-perfect race in Seattle. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett has stood on the podium in every race this year with the exception of the second Triple Crown race at Anaheim 2 and that level of perfection gives him bragging rights. Rest assured that while the two brothers have a bond that is unapparelled in motorsports, there is no one they would rather beat. Neither has been particularly successful in Triple Crown rounds this year, however, and Jett could lose his advantage in two weeks in Glendale, Arizona under that format.
A rivalry is developing between Lawrence and Cameron McAdoo. Tired of losing to the affable Australian, McAdoo pushed the envelope last week in Seattle. He crowded Lawrence in the whoops during their heat race and sent both to the ground. That frustration could bubble over with four rounds remaining. One thing is certain, when these two riders are in proximity on the track, the cameras will be aimed in their direction.
A little means a lot this season. Finishing second to Lawrence in four of five rounds, RJ Hampshire would be losing ground to the leader no matter what, but an 11th-place finish in the overall at Anaheim 2 places him eighth on the chart below behind two of the 250 West riders and five 250 East competitors.
In the mains, Levi Kitchen has been all over the board with a win, one more top-five, two results on the high side of the single digits and a crash-induced 21st at San Diego. He’s really shown his speed in the heats, however, with a perfect record of top-fives and a win.
Mitchell Oldenburg makes the top five list among West riders with a perfect record of top-10 finishes. He’s heading in the wrong direction, however, falling from ninth overall to 11th after finishing outside the top five in both his heat and the Main last week.
250 Rankings
This
Week
Rider
Power
Avg.
Last
Week
Diff,
1.
Jett Lawrence – W
90.75
2
1
2.
Hunter Lawrence – E
90.43
1
-1
3.
Nate Thrasher – E
84.00
3
0
4.
Cameron McAdoo – W
80.50
4
0
5.
Haiden Deegan – E
78.21
5
0
6.
Jeremy Martin – E
78.00
6
0
7.
Jordon Smith – E
76.77
7
0
8.
RJ Hampshire – W
76.75
10
2
9.
Levi Kitchen – W
76.67
8
-1
10.
Max Anstie – E
74.43
11
1
11.
Mitchell Oldenburg – W
73.67
9
-2
12.
Max Vohland – W
72.55
13
1
13.
Tom Vialle – E
72.07
12
-1
14.
Pierce Brown – W
68.64
19
5
15.
Enzo Lopes – W
67.83
17
2
16.
Chris Blose – E
67.43
15
-1
17.
Chance Hymas – E
67.10
16
-1
18.
Michael Mosiman – E
65.80
18
0
19.
Stilez Robertson – W
64.45
14
-5
20.
Phil Nicoletti – W
59.25
20
0
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).
