Racing resumed with Schatz ahead of Kerry Madsen and Larson, with Madsen trying to make a slide job work for the lead, but failing and losing the runner-up position to Larson as a result.
That left the Paul Silva No. 57 chasing the nine-time Knoxville Nationals champion, with Schatz maintaining a consistent second-and-a-half margin over Larson until reaching traffic with 17 to go.
Schatz’s margin continued to grow as he worked masterfully through traffic inside the final 15 circuits. It stood at 2.2 seconds until the caution flew with 12 to go for a slowing Greg Hodnett, setting Larson up to pounce and paving the way for a barnburner finish.
Green conditions meant that Schatz pulled away off Turn 2 on the final restart, with Larson unable to do anything to challenge the modern-era king of Knoxville as Schatz opened the margin even despite hitting traffic with seven to go.
Larson tried to close with three to go, cutting the gap down as low as six tenths of a second, but had to settle for second in the end after flying forward from ninth on the grid.
“That was a fun, tough race,” Larson said. “We had some good restarts there and got to second and I was kind of maintaining pace with him. I was just trying to wait until we got through lapped traffic. I knew we were going to be good in traffic.”
“To run second to Donny is nothing to hang our heads about,” he added. “I felt like I was even with him, but he was just a little bit better than we were in traffic tonight.”
Madsen hung on to complete the podium in the No. 2M Big Game Treestands/GoMuddy.com sprinter, followed by Shane Stewart and Brad Sweet.
Brian Brown, Aaron Reutzel, Rico Abreu, Daryn Pittman and Ian Madsen completed the top 10.
Ricky Warner was named the Crew Chief of the Year at the Nationals, while Reutzel ended the night as the MPI Hard Charger of the Race, coming through the field from 19th to finish seventh.
Dominic Scelzi earned the Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year Award, finishing 16th in the B-Main.
In preliminary action, Jason Sides surged past a dominant Trey Starks on a restart with six laps to go in the night’s 22-lap B-Main, leading the rest of the distance despite a caution and green-white-checkered restart after Brooke Tatnell snagged an inside cone and slung it onto the racing surface.
Though Starks free-fell over the closing stages, he was able to hang on among the four transfers to the A-Main despite a furious battle with Tatnell in the final laps. Tim Shaffer crossed .786 of a second back in second, with Tatnell and Starks also moving into the big dance through the B-Main.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series star Christopher Bell started sixth in the last chance race but struggled the entire way, fading to 3.590 seconds back in eighth at the checkered flag and missing the cut in the No. 14B Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing entry.
James McFadden surged from fourth to first on the opening lap of the 15-lap C-Main and wired the remaining distance despite heavy pressure from Bill Balog. Brady Bacon snuck by Balog for second with two to go, with Balog and Jac Haudenschild completing the transfers.
After heavily pressuring polesitter and early leader Lee Jacobs through the first eight laps, Jamie Veal assumed the point on lap nine of the D-Main and drove away to a .893 of a second victory over Jacobs in the end. Danny Lasoski, Chase Johnson and Davey Heskin completed the top five and transferred on.
Rager Phillips closed late on the front of the E-Main field and assumed the point with two laps to go, driving away to beat Jared Goerges to the checkered flag by 1.878 seconds in a caution-free affair. Seth Brahmer, Todd King, Adam Cruea and Jake Bubak rounded out the transfer cars.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
