It wasn’t a surprise to see Gio Scelzi collect rookie of the year honors during Saturday night’s 5-hour Energy Knoxville Nationals finale, but his run through the week was nothing short of impressive.

Saturday night’s 5-hour Energy Knoxville Nationals didn’t end with a win for David Gravel and CJB Motorsports, but it surely could have been classified as such compared to their result at Knoxville Raceway one year prior.

Sixteen-year-old Gio Scelzi will break a nearly three-decade old record when he straps into the Indy Race Parts No. 71 and takes the green flag for Saturday’s 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals championship A-main.

Carson Macedo noted last week, before ever setting foot in the No. 41 for Jason Johnson Racing, that he hoped to be comfortable in time to make a run at locking into Saturday’s 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals A-main.

Five years ago, Daryn Pittman turned a storybook return to the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series into a championship run the likes of which few believed was possible.

Few things hurt worse in sprint car racing than seeing a shot at a 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals victory slip through one’s fingertips, something David Gravel experienced firsthand one year ago.

A diverse pool of drivers, led by 1983 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals champion Sammy Swindell and three-time Nationals runner-up Brian Brown, will take to the track on Thursday during Toyota Qualifying Night.

Chase Johnson will tackle the 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals for the third-straight year this week, piloting the Shawn and Cyndi Thomas-owned No. 68 as he attempts to make the world’s most prestigious sprint car race.

If the drivers entered for Wednesday’s BRANDT Qualifying Night program at Knoxville Raceway want to be the best at the half-mile black-dirt oval, they’re going to have to beat the best in order to do so.

A year older, a year wiser and with one run at the Knoxville Nationals already under his belt, Spencer Bayston will return for his second shot at making the crown jewel of sprint car racing on Saturday night.