KNOXVILLE, Iowa – 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.
The California teenager put together an outstanding preliminary night performance on Wednesday night, finishing fourth in the 25-lap feature and ranking sixth in points accrued against his competitors.
Following the conclusion of the second preliminary program on Thursday night, Scelzi’s total of 468 points was good enough for ninth overall among the star-studded field, locking him into the inside of row five for Saturday night’s 50-lap, $150,000-to-win finale.
That meant that Scelzi eclipsed the former mark of 18 years old set by a young Jeff Gordon in 1989.
He wasn’t focused on that on Friday, however, even though he was relaxing because he’s in the show.
“I can’t even process that right now,” said Scelzi of breaking Gordon’s longstanding record. “I’m kind of still in the mode of having made the show; now we want to run well and we know we have to race it on Saturday night. I’m super excited about that; it’s definitely an honor, but I think I’ll celebrate it more after this weekend’s all done and we have a chance to reflect on everything we’ve done after the fact.”
It marked the second time this year that the younger Scelzi has made a crown-jewel dirt-track event in his first attempt. He qualified for the Chili Bowl Nationals Saturday A-main as a rookie in January.
However, he noted that his rookie appearance in Saturday’s Knoxville Nationals is a much more meaningful accomplishment to him, personally.
“This is absolutely 100 times bigger for me than making the Chili Bowl, without question,” said Scelzi. “I feel like a winged sprint car is the hardest car to drive on dirt, with all the dirty air you have to deal with and how unpredictable they are and how fast they are. This race, with the caliber of drivers and the caliber of cars it draws every year … is the toughest race in the country to make, in my opinion, by far.”
Much like Wednesday night winner Greg Hodnett pointed out after taking the checkered flag, Scelzi agreed that the extra track time he’s had at the black-dirt half-mile in recent weeks has aided him during Nationals week.
Scelzi ran the Capitani Classic on Sunday night, as well the 360 Knoxville Nationals last weekend too.
“We had a really good 360 Nationals, when I honestly hadn’t expected too much there,” noted Scelzi. “Stepping down to the 360, I felt like it was a lot easier to drive compared to the 410, and being really efficient in those cars … despite not having the feature we wanted, helped a lot.
“Having speed in the Capitani and at Oskaloosa was huge too,” Scelzi added. “The track time I’ve gotten coming into this week has helped immensely. I think I’ve been here six or seven times in the last two months. It’s helped me so much with getting comfortable with the groove and where I need to put the car and I think it’s going to be big for me when we get down to crunch time on Saturday night.”
Speaking of crunch time, Scelzi was quick to say that he’s not putting a bar in front of himself going into Saturday night.
As far as the young standout is concerned, he and his Indy Race Parts team have already checked all their boxes. Anything bigger on Saturday night is a bonus.
“It’s hard to say what the goal is for me at this point,” admitted Scelzi. “It depends on what track conditions do. If I can keep myself out of trouble and put myself in position, I think anything is possible.
“With me being so young, it’s hard to go in with high expectations … and I think, to be frank, we’ve already exceeded any expectations we could have set. Whether I finish fifth or 20th on Saturday night now, we made the show and that’s a pretty huge deal in itself.”
