We’re just two days into King’s Royal week at Eldora, and we already have a ton to talk about. The week, billed as High Limit vs World of Outlaws, kicked off on Wednesday with the Double Down Duels, a preliminary night used to set the C, B, and A main lineups for Thursday’s main event, the High Limit Racing Joker’s Jackpot. No points were on the line for this event, but the stakes were still high for everyone involved. For the drivers, a $100k winner’s purse was on the line. For the series, Thursday would be the series’ national television debut on FS1.
Wednesday night started with a massive field of 63 cars, featuring the biggest in 410 sprint car names from around the country, all trying to find their way into Thursday’s feature. To accommodate, the field was split into two groups, A & B, and each group had its own hot laps, qualifying, heats, and features paying $12,000 each. Drivers would be awarded points based on their finishing positions that would be used to set Thursday’s heat races. Aaron Reutzel and Corey Day won the two Wednesday features, and the top 6 in points from each Wednesday group automatically transferred into Thursday’s feature. Everyone else was left to battle it out in a series of C and B mains on Thursday. In the end, just 24 drivers would remain to battle it out for $100,000.
Thursday was drier, but no less dramatic. The first big story of the evening was current WOO points leader and 2024 Jackpot winner David Gravel blowing a right rear and crashing hard while running in a transfer spot in the first B Main. Gravel was okay, but would miss the feature. Adding insult to injury, Gravel was only in the B main because of a disqualification after finishing 2nd on Wednesday night. During inspection, series officials deemed that the front wing was too far forward on his #2 Huset’s Speedway machine. Other notables missing the feature included Emerson Axsom, Justin Peck, Christopher Bell, Kasey Kahne, Kerry Madsen, and Donny Schatz.
Rico Abreau and Kyle Larson brought the field to green and were contenders for the entire event. Chaos erupted with a terrifying crash in turn 1 of the first lap involving Tyler Courtney, Brad Sweet, Buddy Kofoid, Bill Balog, and several others. Multiple cars flipped and parts lay strewn all over the corner. The accident caused an extended red flag for cleanup and track repair. Tyler Courtney, who took the hardest hit, was taken by ambulance for further observation at a local hospital. Tyler’s fiancée Aysia later posted on Facebook that he was alert and able to move his extremities, but no further updates have been made as of this writing. Once racing resumed, Larson would briefly fall back to 4th place on the restart but immediately began a march forward and retake 2nd, albeit about two seconds behind leader Abreau. Logan Schuchart was fast as well and was putting pressure on Larson before a caution for Ashton Torgerson briefly stopped the event on lap 24. High Limit officials allowed teams to stop and get fuel during the caution period. Larson’s car seemed to come to life after the caution, and he rocketed around Abreau’s #24 on the outside within 19 laps to go. Larson would fend off multiple charges from Logan Chuchart and Carson Macedo before both found issues late in the race. Larson held on to collect the $100,000 payday and hopefully end what has been a rough slump in basically everything he’s driven as of late. That slump was on Larson’s mind as well when he spoke with Tony LaPorta in victory lane:
the last month and a half has been kind of a struggle in all forms of racing for me. But feels good to work hard and keep our heads in it and get a big win like this.
When LaPorta asked Larson if he could express how hard it is to win these races when so many big names were in the field, Larson quickly responded in defense of the sprint car community:
I think a lot of fans see me race on Sunday’s and they have a misconception of sprint car racing that this isn’t professional and that I come down to win these races, you know. it is the toughest form of racing that i get to be a part of.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars will take over Eldora for the next two days for the King’s Royal, with another $200,000 on the line for the driver who finds his way to victory lane.
Header Image Sourced via High Limit’s FB Page