Kyle Larson is rolling, folks. After winning the last two NASCAR Cup Series points-paying races at Charlotte and Sonoma, Larson followed it up by snagging a $1-million payday in a duel with Brad Keselowski in Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway.
While Larson scored yet another win, there was a point in the race, where he did not think his No. 5 car was capable of pulling it off.
“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” Larson said. “That second run there, we were really bad and I was like, ‘Man, we’re in trouble,’ I went backwards that round. So, I was like, this is — we got an uphill battle. Did not imagine seeing myself winning this race today.”
This is Larson’s second-career NASCAR All-Star race win and he is the first driver to ever win it at two different venues.
Brad Keselowski lucked out in Round five of the race, as the caution came out as he was exiting pit road following his mandatory four-tire pit stop. Due to this, Keselowski, who would have cycled back to the top-10, instead inherited the lead.
While he didn’t win Round 5, and didn’t win the overall race, Keselowski was the only man who had a chance to beat Larson in the end.
“To run second to the Hendrick cars right now, is kind of an accomplishment,” Keselowski admitted. “They’re just stupid fast. I had them off of turn four, but they just have so much speed, they motored right on back by me, like damn.”
Going into the final Round, it looked like Chase Elliott could pull off the win, but he finished third. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports pit crew did clock in the fastest mandatory four-tire stop in Round 5, which netted them a $100,000 bonus.
Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney finished fourth and fifth.
Alex Bowman, William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Aside from the five Round conclusion cautions, the All-Star race only had two cautions, but each of them were for half-spins by Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain. It was a relatively clean All-Star race, but the battle for the lead was close throughout the duration of the event.
