Courtney Conquers Smackdown

Rarely does an event truly live up to its moniker, but Saturday night’s “Sprint Car Smackdown VI” was an apt description of how the final laps and post-race theatrics unfolded Saturday night at Kokomo Speedway.

Tyler Courtney utilized a slider to grab the lead from race-long leader Tyler Thomas on the final green-white-checkered restart to win his second USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature at the quarter-mile in as many nights.

Such as it was the night prior when he flipped in qualifying before returning to win the Friday feature at Kokomo, the trail for Indianapolis, Indiana’s Courtney to victory lane on Saturday night wasn’t quite a point A to B type of deal. After fighting engine issues early on in the night, Courtney encountered a maze that took just two laps, but resulted in jubilation for some, heartbreak for others and grass stains for a few who rolled around in the infield after voicing their displeasure with the way things played out down the stretch.

“It’s a lot sweeter,” Courtney exclaimed. “Last night was obviously pretty special getting my first sprint car win at Kokomo. That’s a hard feat to accomplish in itself. To back it up in the biggest race at the track is amazing…”

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