Auto racing: 360 Knoxville Nationals champion crownded

KNOXVILLE — Two USAC wins.

Never a win at Knoxville in a sprint car.

Tyler Courtney could get used to the view from Victory Lane at the Knoxville Raceway. Courtney brought home his first 360 Nationals win on Saturday night, passing pole-sitter Emerson Axsom with 18 laps left in the 30-lap A-Main feature, racing through lap traffic while opening up a three-second lead before settling on a 1.531-second win in a race dominated by a pair of new faces to the front of the field during sprint car’s ultimate two weeks of competition.

“Anytime you win at Knoxville, it’s a huge milestone in your career. To do on the finale night of the 360 Nationals is even more special,” Courtney said. “You always want to win the big show at Knoxville next week, but we’ve got the confidence now that we can come here and get it done.

“I know we’re going to have a damn good race car. We’re going to do our damndest to get back here to Victory Lane by next Saturday.”

Axsom and Courtney were the somewhat surprising front row for the 30-lap sprint to the finish of the 360 Knoxville Nationals. Axsom entered the night have accrued 488 points during Thursday’s opening night of qualifying after producing the third-best qualifying time, winning a heat race and finishing fifth overall in that night’s A-Main.

“This week, we’ve probably we’ve run as many races here at Knoxville as we had throughout the entire year,” Axsom said. “Running this many nights in a row at Knoxville regardless of the results could be very instrumental for my career.

“It hasn’t really set in just how well we ran throughout this week. Right now, I’m still a little upset over how things went in the final race.”

Axsom and Courtney exchanged the lead early at the front of the A-Main field once the green flag flew. Axsom had moved back in front of Courtney just before the race was stopped after Chase Randall jumped the cushion in the third turn late in the second lap.

Once the race restarted, Axsom seemed to get the jump needed to put himself in position to gain a career-defining win. Axsom jumped ahead of Courtney and led by over two seconds.

“My crew chief is really good at fueling these motors and really getting these motors tuned to be quick on restarts,” Axsom said. “With 360s, there’s not a whole lot of horsepower there. You need a good, tuned motor that runs clean. I got a good restart and, once I got up to speed, I figured I’d be alright.”

Axsom, however, would encounter lap traffic as the final 28 laps of the night would be run without another stoppage. Dealing with the traffic would prove to be the difference in the race as Axsom was slowed initially, allowing Courtney to completely erase the difference on the track between the top two drivers.

Ultimately, coming around the third turn on the 12th lap, Axsom got stuck behind Ryan Giles. Courtney, meanwhile, went high to go past Axsom and Giles before splitting two more lap cars with 10 laps to go before putting plenty of distance between himself and the A-Main pole sitter ultimately cruising home to the win.

“Once we got into traffic, I felt like my car was pretty good at running behind guys,” Courtney said. “Emerson had to slide somebody and got caught in a lane change, which helped me a lot to squeeze around him. My car just felt like it was getting better and better.

“This field was really tough. Those cars I had to lap were not easy to pass, so I knew anytime I got up on someone I had to find a way around them quickly if I could.”

Courtney not only walked away as champion of the 360 Nationals for the first time, but walked away with a $30,000 payday that included $10,000 in lap money along with the $20,000 banked for taking the checkered flag. Axsom walked away with a $5,000 bonus in lapped money and $500 as the Jetco Rookie of the 360 Nationals, but could not shake the feeling of disappointment for the one move that might have cost him a career-defining triumph.

“I want more. I want to win. I feel like we put ourselves in position to win and didn’t get it done. That’s what I’m frustrated about,” Axsom said. “I feel like there’s a chance that Tyler might have still been able to beat me, but you never know at these races. One move might have made the difference. It’s hard to actually know until you go back and try to fix that mistake.

“I’m upset right not that I feel like I misjudged a move, but it’s all about perspective. My first time ever at Knoxville two years ago, I got lapped twice. I came back the next year and struggled and we struggled at the beginning of this year. If you would have told me coming into this week that we had the speed that we have, I’d have been more than happy. I’ve only been running winged cars full time for six months. I’m happy with this, but I still want more.”

Austin McCarl made his way to the podium with a third-place finish in the A-Main. McCarl got close to overtaking Axsom for second place with less than 10 laps left, needing to make the pass to have a chance at chasing down Courtney, but could not get past the Indiana rookie.

“I’m disappointed to be sitting here in third. I felt like I mechaniced the car really well. I feel like I drove as well as I could,” McCarl said. “We’ve been good all year. We just haven’t been clicking off wins, but I feel like I’m right there every night. If we keep doing that and continuing to fine-tune some things, I have a lot of speed and a ton of confidence to roll into next week.”

Randall advanced to the A-Main by passing Kasey Kahne for the B-Main win, taking advantage of lap traffic to make the late pass for the lead. Chris Martin took a win in the D-Main before edging Jason Martin at the finish line to earn the final transfer spot from the C-Main, a race won by Tanner Holmes, while Tyler Lee took the win in the eight-lap E-Main opener on Saturday.

Rico Abreu picked up a Knoxville Speedweek win on Sunday night, sliding past Daryn Pittman early in the A-Main before pulling away for a 3.5-second win over Gio Scelzi in hopes of building momentum for the 410 Knoxville Nationals next Saturday night. Racing resumes at Knoxville on Wednesday with the first night of 410 qualifying as well as the official pole unveiling of 2023 Knoxville Nationals champion Kyle Larson along the Fan Walk outside of the ticket office at Knoxville Raceway at 4:30 p.m.