KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Kyle Larson kept his latest hot streak on the dirt going with a dominant victory against the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Friday night at Knoxville Raceway.

Larson, who came into the Marion County Fairgrounds fresh off a three-race win streak with the All Star Circuit of Champions, stormed to his fourth straight sprint car triumph during the Brownell’s Big Guns Bash after starting sixth on the grid.

He passed three cars in the opening lap, then dispatched polesitter David Gravel for second just before a lap-six caution flag that put him alongside Donny Schatz for a restart at the half-mile black-dirt oval.

It took two tries to get the race back going, due to a hard flip by Rico Abreu in turn one when the green was initially displayed again, but once racing resumed Larson was ready to go on the attack.

He stumbled briefly, falling back into Gravel’s clutches at the end of lap seven, but Larson quickly gathered up his No. 57 and went to work. He closed on Schatz’s back bumper from a second back in just two laps, then made the power move of the race with a deep turn-three slide job on the 10th circuit.

After that, it was game, set and match for Larson, who knifed through traffic and drove away from the field to a 3.101-second victory over Schatz. It was the 10th win of Larson’s Outlaw career, tying him with original Outlaw Danny Smith and Joe Gaerte – Kyle Larson Racing’s crew chief – on the all-time list.

“It’s a pleasure to drive for (crew chief) Paul Silva, and everybody who helps out on this team,” said Larson in victory lane. “It makes it a lot of fun to come to Knoxville, one of my favorite tracks. We were terrible at the Knoxville Nationals last year. We were pretty bad here a month and a half ago. To turn around and have a solid night … it felt good. Paul has been working his butt off; I’ve been complaining to him a lot, but it’s because we’re a great team and I know what we can do together.

“Before the first caution, I could enter above the holes in (turn) one and diamond and exit low off of two. I felt I could maintain with (Schatz) when I was doing that,” Larson tipped. “Once I got to second, Donny was still following the top and I was able to just make that line work and get the run on him in three and pass him. It felt really good in traffic. I got tight, and I had to pull my wing back, and about the same time, my nose wing fell down. It made it hard to drive, but thankfully, I only had to go one lap with it like that, having no front downforce.

“It was extremely difficult … but I was driving as hard as I could every lap.”

Schatz tried everything he could to keep pace with Larson, to no avail. The 10-time Outlaw champion and 10-time Knoxville Nationals winner came up a distant second, but it was a solid night given that crew chief Steve Swenson was absent from the pit area due to a medical situation.

“(Larson) was definitely better than us,” said Schatz. “He kind of surprised me on that restart when he took off so well. I knew his car would drive forward really well. We had that red, and got back in command there, but he just found a different line in one and two. He went outside of it and came back down across the race track. I didn’t think it would stay that long, so I didn’t try it.

“You can’t be making a mistake, but if you are, now’s the time to do it. This was a real solid night for us.”

Gravel took the final step on the podium, ahead of Carson Macedo and Sheldon Haudenschild.

Logan Schuchart, who had to take a provisional due to engine issues that plagued him all night long, was the night’s KSE Hard Charger after climbing from 25th to 13th during the 25-lap feature.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season continues Saturday night with the second half of the Brownell’s Big Guns Bash at Knoxville Raceway.

To view complete race results, advance to the next page.