​Knoxville Raceway general manager Jason Reed knew there wasn’t a perfect solution. By early Saturday morning, there wasn’t much of a choice, either.With Friday’s Hard Knox Night postponed by rain and the Knoxville Raceway grounds further saturated overnight, Reed and his team faced an increasingly difficult task: squeeze what amounted to two programs into one day and somehow complete the 65th annual Knoxville Nationals with more threatening weather looming.Doing so meant condensing the Hard Knox program despite knowing the move wouldn’t be popular, overcoming six hours of on-track delays and ultimately racing into Sunday’s wee hours.The Numbers Behind Kyle Larson’s Wild 2026 Knoxville Nationals2026 Knoxville Nationals Results At Knoxville RacewayKyle Larson’s Knoxville Nationals: The Debate, The Wins & What-Ifs”I hated it just as much as the drivers and the teams did,” Reed told FloRacing. “But … we just knew we had to get the show in.”Ultimately, they did. Kyle Larson’s fourth Knoxville Nationals victory wasn’t official until 1:41 a.m. Sunday, completing a marathon day Reed was relieved to finish.”Really happy, yeah,” Reed said. “It was a stressful last 24 hours. … We had several plans, and having to change plans and just trying to keep figuring out, you know, our main goal was to get it done today.”I know there’s a lot of people that were saying, ‘Well, just run it on Sunday.’ But there’s a whole bunch more people that can’t stay for Sunday. … So I was like, we got to try to get it in no matter what.”Sunday presented its own problems. Staffing would’ve been a significant hurdle, with Nationals week coinciding with college move-in weekend.”We have a lot of help that moved themselves or their kids to college yesterday,” Reed said.Knoxville also had Friday ticket-holders to consider, wanting to at least accommodate the fans who had paid for Hard Knox Night either through single-day tickets or four-day Nationals packages.With overnight rain delaying scheduled on-track activity from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., officials condensed the postponed Hard Knox program into a streamlined 25-lap preliminary feature. Time trials were scrapped and heats were lined up by prelim points.Drivers ranked 17th through 20th in preliminary points were moved directly into the A-main, positions 21-40 into the B-main and 41-50 into the C-main. That left 47 drivers — those ranked 51st on back — racing for no better than 11th in the C-main.It was a drastic departure from the traditional format, especially for 11-time Nationals champion Donny Schatz, who won the rubber-down 25-lapper but made his frustration known in victory lane.”Really disappointed in the change of formats, really. I guess it’s their baby and we’re playing in it,” Schatz told pit reporter Wade Aunger. “Yesterday, if we came here tonight, you were racing for four lock-in spots. Tonight if you win, you’re racing for 11th in the C. That’s a pretty big change up.”Reed understood the frustrations, but ti