Kyle Larson found out earlier in the week he would be filling in for a recovering Connor Zilisch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday (May 3).
As he usually does, Larson took full advantage of a great opportunity to win the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300.
On a double-overtime restart, Larson claimed the lead for the final time and cruised to victory for JR Motorsports. The win marked the 17th of Larson’s Xfinity Series career and his second on the season.
Taylor Gray charged from fifth on the final restart for a runner-up finish. Riley Herbst climbed to third at the finish, while Austin Hill came home fourth.
Sam Mayer completed the top five finishers after leading in the late stages.
A racetrack green from a tremendous amount of rain and a lineup set by last week’s results led to an eventful opening segment.
Much like the end of the race, the beginning of the race saw chaos as the caution flag flew nearly immediately for a Ryan Ellis spin. When the field was reset, it soon fell under caution again when Nick Leitz missed a shift and the ensuing stack up resulted in several cars spinning.
While it took the race a while to get going, once it did, there was a familiar face flexing his muscle at the front as Justin Allgaier quickly gained the lead and began building his advantage.
Allgaier cruised to easily take stage 1, while Larson charged to finish second as the groove began to widen out towards the end of the stage.
Although Larson was the man on the move, he had to climb through the field again after an uncontrolled tire penalty after the end of stage 1 sent him to the back.
While stage 1 opened with chaos, stage 2 played out in a much calmer manner. Starting up front by way of winning the race off pit road at the end of the first segment, Austin Hill led wire-to-wire to collect the stage victory.
Stage 3 opened with an immediate incident when Josh Williams clipped the grass through the second kick in the dogleg, triggering a multi-car crash.
Drivers like Gray, Sam Mayer and Anthony Alfredo received damage in the incident, but managed to continue.
Aside from a Sheldon Creed spin on lap 104, the next run played out green, allowing contenders like Allgaier and Larson to ascend the running order up to the top.
Allgaier led with Larson giving chase as the pair closed in on what would be their final pitstops. Larson forced Allgaier’s hand as he ducked in to pit before the No. 7 and took the lead on the undercut.
As Allgaier pursued Larson for the lead, he got together with a slowing Kris Wright on the exit of turn 4, sending the No. 7 into the wall and bringing an unfortunate end to his strong day.
With his main competition eliminated, it appeared Larson had an easy road to victory. Larson built a healthy advantage and was set on cruise control before a caution with only 12 laps remaining presented an important decision.
With tire wear clearly becoming a factor over the course of the day, Larson’s crew called him in for fresh rubber for the run to the checkered. While Larson lined up eighth to restart inside 10 to go, Hill inherited the lead ahead of Nick Sanchez, Mayer and others who stayed out on older tires.
On the restart, Hill and Sanchez battled hard, entering turns one and two side-by-side. This allowed Mayer, propelled by a massive push from a surging Larson, to split them three-wide and claimed the lead entering turn 3.
As Hill slid backward, he made contact with Sammy Smith in the tri-oval, sending Smith into the wall and prompting an overtime restart.
Mayer held serve on the first overtime restart, with Larson climbing to third before the field was slowed again. Jeremy Clements spun into the wall at the exit of turn two, setting up a second overtime.
While Mayer and Sanchez made up the front row ahead of Larson on the second overtime restart, Larson was afforded the opportunity to get some clean air when Sanchez went wide in turn 1. The No. 88 quickly sailed around the two leaders to reclaim the point.
With the field in his rearview, Larson took the checkered flag to end an eventful afternoon for the NASCAR Xfinity Series from Texas Motor Speedway.
