PORT ROYAL, PA (October 9, 2020): Kyle Larson romped to the win on night one of the Nittany Showdown at Port Royal Speedway, The World of Outlaws victory was Larson’s 40th in 80 starts on dirt surfaces in Sprint Cars, Midgets and Late Models.

“I felt good in the dash, really, really, good,” Larson noted. “The balance in the car was a little different in the feature, but I was able to slide the slower cars.” Larson attributed his success to the frequency that he has been able to race with his crew chief, Paul Silva. “This is the most that I’ve ever gotten to race with Paul. We got to race a lot of days in a row and we got into a good rhythm.”

Second place finisher, Danny Dietrich, quipped, “hopefully, this guy goes back to NASCAR and we can be the winner.” Dietrich had one shot at Larson, a restart with ten laps to go, but it turned out to be a blank. “I had to go to the bottom and try to drive across (the middle) but couldn’t get enough speed.” Larson was able to keep his momentum up on the outside line and pulled away to the easy win.

Larson felt that his luck in the draw process was finally starting to improve. He pulled the number one pill for the dash, which meant that he would start first, and he drove effortlessly to victory over Dietrich to set the front row for the A Main. Sheldon Haudenschild lined up third, with Brock Zearfoss next to him. Donny Schatz and Gio Scelzi were in row three, with David Gravel and Anthony Macri in row four. Tony Stewart and James McFadden were in row five, with Kerry Madsen and Lance Dewease in the sixth row.

Larson powered into turn one with the lead on the opening lap, with Dietrich following him. Zearfoss nestled into third. Haudenschild, Scelzi, and Schatz followed. Over the next fourteen laps, the field strung out and there was no movement within the top ten.

The big shake-up came with fifteen laps in the books. There was a five-car skirmish in turn four, seemingly started by Brent Marks. Also involved were Brad Sweet, McFadden, Carson Macedo, and Dewease. All of these racers were between tenth and sixteenth in the running order at the time. Nobody was injured, but Dewease and Macedo were eliminated from the race.

Although Larson’s commanding lead was wiped out by the incident, he was all alone out front for the single-file restart. He was able to get away cleanly, and reeled off the remaining laps without any difficulty.

At the checkers, it was Larson over Dietrich and Haudenschild. Scelzi, zearfoss and Macri were next. Positions seven through ten went to Schatz, Gravel, Freddie Rahmer, Jr., and Madsen.

The four heats went to Schatz, Scelzi, Larson, and Dietrich. Dylan Cisney debuted his new machine and earned the win in the C Main. Logan Schuchart prevailed in the B Main. Larson was the dash victor. The fastest qualifier was Schatz, who topped Group A with a lap of 15.190. Tops in Group B was Haudenschild with a time of 15.349.