The top-16 starters are determined for Saturday's 63rd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.

Among Thursday's headlines are Kyle Larson's dominance, Daryn Pittman and the No. 69K team as the feel-good story, the Nationals format delivering, Tyler Courtney back in the mix, and first-time Nationals starters.

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For five takeaways from Thursday's Knoxville Nationals qualifying night, read below.

It’s Kyle Larson vs. Everyone Else

So much for thinking anyone else not named Kyle Larson would be the odds-on favorite to win these Knoxville Nationals. What the Elk Grove, Calif., superstar has done over the last seven days is some of his most impressive work at the wheel of a race car, which says a lot.

Friday, Aug. 2, World of Outlaws at Federated Auto Parts I-55 Raceway: 21st-to-victory
Saturday, Aug. 3, World of Outlaws at Federated Auto Parts I-55 Raceway: 12th-to-victory
Monday, Aug. 5, Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway: 13th-to-victory
Thursday, Aug. 8, Knoxville Nationals qualifying night: Sixth-to-victory

That’s 47 positions gained in 140 laps. On Saturday as he leads another Nationals to green, Larson won’t have to go those extra measures seen over the last week. That is, clawing his way up the leaderboard to find victory lane.

His car — with Paul Silva’s uniquely installed exhaust headers that point skyward rather than straight back and flushed along the side panels — clearly has a stark advantage in traffic at this juncture. And as for Silva’s exhaust pipes, the No. 57 team declined to comment on the apparently clever mechanical approach.

Larson hasn’t lost a race since Silva’s installed the exhaust headers pointing skyward, a tactic that isn’t entirely abnormal. Steve Kinser supposedly used to take a similar approach and an anonymous Sprint Car veteran said earlier this week that four-time Knoxville Nationals champ Kenny Weld also fixed his exhaust pipes skyward from time to time. Those are just a few examples of old-time Sprint Car greats tinkering with the standard exhaust setup, and surely there are more stories like that out there.

But let’s not make Larson’s four-race win-streak all about the exhaust headers. He’s brimming with confidence above all. Actually, a level of confidence that hasn’t been tapped into — statistically speaking — in four years.

The last Larson won four-straight Sprint Car races? July 2020 when he won five-straight races over an eight-day span. Larson’s back to his historic, otherworldly pace.

Should he win Saturday, he’d join Mark Kinser, Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, and Doug Wolfgang as the only Sprint Car drivers ever to have won at least three Knoxville Nationals and the Kings Royal.

WATCH: Kyle Larson talks about landing on the pole of Saturday's Knoxville Nationals main event.

Can Daryn Pittman Win The 2024 Knoxville Nationals?

The feel-good story, if there ever is one from these Nationals, has to be the semi-retired Daryn Pittman landing on the front row of Saturday’s finale with Don Kreitz Jr.’s homespun No. 69K team that seldom ever races outside a hundred-mile radius in Central Pennsylvania.

To be clear, don’t take that as if Pittman and the No. 69K lucked into their advantageous position. Pittman and the No. 69K team are a terrific pairing, and that had been apparent well before this week where the Sprint Car world now sees those capabilities for themselves.

Pittman came one lap, or one position, shy of landing on the Nationals pole for the second time at age 45. And he had that potential even in just his ninth race of the 2024 season. But this has been a sterling and promising week for the No. 69K team.

During Sunday’s Capitani Classic, he led seven laps and time-trialed inside the top-three for fourth time in eight races to that point. After Thursday, make that five in nine races, including two quick times to boot.

This kind of impressive speed has been with Pittman every step of the way in his limited partnership with the No. 69K team. They even won a race earlier this year — May 31 at Williams Grove Speedway — too.

Kreitz is in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame for a reason — he knows what he’s doing — and Pittman’s a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer once he’s soon eligible (he could be eligible in 2026 when he’s been quote-unquote retired for five years, but no later than 2029 when he turns 50).

There aren’t too many Hall of Fame driver-crew chief combinations at this year’s Nationals. Kreitz and Pittman are one of them. If they can withstand 50 frenetic laps and go the distance without their pace falling off, there’s no reason to think they can’t contend for a would-be storybook Nationals title.

WATCH: Daryn Pittman talks about putting the Kreitz Racing No. 69K on the Knoxville Nationals front row.

'It's Not The Format ... '

After Wednesday’s qualifying night left heavy-hitters David Gravel and Donny Schatz on the outside looking in, the Nationals longstanding, often-challenging format became the topic of conversation. Gravel himself even alluded that he didn’t play the format quite right.

“We were on the wrong side of it all night,” Gravel said Wednesday. “Like, we needed to be four spots worse in qualifying and we would’ve transferred through the heat race, and locked into the A-main probably battling for a win tonight. But we started seventh, and nobody who started seventh or eighth transferred.”

But on Thursday, Daryn Pittman flipped the notion that drivers from the fourth row (remember, the heat invert is eight) have insurmountable odds of transferring outright to the qualifying night main event. Not only that, Pittman won the opening heat — regarded as the most difficult heat to pass — from eighth.

Pittman’s eyebrow-raising performance elicited these words from Brad Sweet, who eventually fell two points shy of locking himself into Saturday’s A-main: “(It takes) a good car. Daryn just made us all look pretty stupid. It shows it’s not the format. It’s how good you can get your car.”

Sunshine Back In The Mix

Another Knoxville Nationals for Tyler Courtney, another advantageous starting spot for the High Limit Racing campaigner.

After missing last year’s event because of a back injury, Courtney will start third in Saturday’s main event and is eager to put what he learned from his last 410 Nationals — 25 laps led from a front-row starting spot in 2022 — into fuller practice.

“Just experience … learning to be up front and how the 50 laps go, and things like that,” Courtney said. “Yeah, I think we had a really good car the first half of that race that year and kind of faded at the end. I feel like if we do what we did tonight and start coming on at the end of 50 laps, I think we’re going to be OK.”

Courtney also carries added confidence from his 360 Nationals victory last weekend. Winning the 410 Nationals would him alongside elite company in these select drivers to win Knoxville’s Crown Jewel and a Kings Royal: Dave Blaney, David Gravel, Mark Kinser, Steve Kinser, Kyle Larson, Donny Schatz, Brad Sweet, Sammy Swindell, and Doug Wolfgang.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance,” Courtney said. “And we’ll go attack it on Saturday.”

WATCH: Tyler Courtney discusses locking his Clauson-Marshall No. 7BC team into the third-starting spot for Saturday's Knoxville Nationals.

First-Time Lock-Ins: Brady Bacon And Bill Balog

While Nationals mainstays such as David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart and Brad Sweet have yet to lock themselves into this year’s A-main, Brady Bacon and Bill Balog are taking heart in first-time appearances in Knoxville’s big dance.

Indeed, Bacon, the wingless ace, and Balog, the 10-time IRA champ, have never qualified for Nationals main event until this year. For Bacon, it’s taken 12 tries. Balog’s Nationals moment is one 14 years in the making.