Kyle Larson is usually a favorite to win any time he dips down into the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field, but for the majority of Saturday’s The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion didn’t look to have a car capable of winning the race.
“My car was not handling the best at all. I was just super, super tight, loaded, and I couldn’t carry any speed in the corners,” Larson explained. “I was just getting ate up on restarts, I mean, really the whole run.”
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However, on the final restart of the race, Larson was able to get his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in a position near the front of the field, and when he got in clean air, the car came to life, and he was able to close out the win.
“But that last restart, we had some guys stay out. And I had a good launch and was able to get to the middle and get some clean air, and then I think just me being able to kind of run a line that allowed my front tires to be able to build where they needed to, to allow my car to be okay on the long run, I think helps,” Larson said after taking the unexpected victory.
Larson, who will start fifth in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas, was able to hold off fellow NASCAR Cup Series full-timer Chase Briscoe for the race win by a margin of victory of 2.557 seconds.
The win marks the 18th of Larson’s 121-race O’Reilly Series career, and he’s now up to 54 wins combined between the three NASCAR National Series divisions.
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While Briscoe looked like he had a shot to chase Larson down in the closing laps, using an ultra-high lane, he wasn’t able to complete the rally to win after losing a lap in an early-race incident. Still, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra gave himself a good showing on the day.
Sheldon Creed drew the ire of Taylor Gray in a late-race incident where he crashed Gray from the second position.
Despite the dust-up with Gray, Creed would hold on to finish third, ahead of Justin Allgaier, last week’s race winner, who will also fill in for Alex Bowman in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event.
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Sammy Smith, Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate, would come home with a fifth-place finish.
Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch, Corey Day, William Sawalich, and Austin Hill rounded out the top-10 finishers in Saturday’s race.
For Day, the eighth-place finish was a disappointing result to what had been arguably the best overall race of his young NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career. Day led nine laps, and looked to be positioned perfectly to pull off his first career win, but faded on the final restart of the race.
Justin Allgaier held onto the series point lead following Saturday’s race at Las Vegas and now carries a 13-point advantage over Jesse Love heading into next weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway. Austin Hill, who wonn the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, sits third, 29 points back, and Sheldon Creed is 49 points behind Allgaier in fourth.
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Despite the crash, Taylor Gray was able to stay inside the “Chase” cutoff, as he now sits on the cutline in 12th in the standings. Gray sits six points ahead of Jeb Burton, 13 points ahead of Brennan Poole, and 15 points ahead of William Sawalich.
Next up for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, March 21. That race will be televised on The CW with television coverage set to begin at 5:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that event.
The LiUNA! Race Results
1. 88-Kyle Larson
2. 19-Chase Briscoe
3. 00-Sheldon Creed
4. 7-Justin Allgaier
5. 8-Sammy Smith
6. 2-Jesse Love
7. 1-Connor Zilisch
8. 17-Corey Day
9. 18-William Sawalich
10. 21-Austin Hill
11. 9-Carson Kvapil
12. 99-Parker Retzlaff
13. 20-Brandon Jones
14. 28-Kyle Sieg
15. 52-Daniel Dye
16. 92-Josh Williams
17. 24-Harrison Burton
18. 0-Cole Custer
19. 32-Rajah Caruth
20. 44-Brennan Poole, -1 lap
21. 48-Patrick Staropoli, -1 lap
22. 31-Blaine Perkins, -1 lap
23. 07-Josh Bilicki, -1 lap
24. 51-Jeremy Clements, -1 lap
25. 87-Austin Green, -1 lap
26. 45-Lavar Scott, -1 lap
27. 27-Jeb Burton, -1 lap
28. 91-Mason Maggio, -1 lap
29. 55-Joey Gase, -1 lap
30. 02-Ryan Ellis, -2 laps
31. 26-Dean Thompson, -2 laps
32. 42-Nathan Byrd, -2 laps
33. 39-Ryan Sieg, -3 laps
34. 96-Anthony Alfredo, -3 laps
35. 41-Sam Mayer, -4 laps
36. 5-Chandler Smith, Out
37. 54-Taylor Gray, Out
38. 25-Nick Sanchez, Out
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Larson Comes On Strong Late, Wins O’Reilly Series Race at Las Vegas.
