Kyle Larson was in the right place at the right time in the final laps of the Xfinity Series race to capture the win at Circuit of The Americas amid the late race chaos.
The Focused Health 250 finished in double overtime as Shane van Gisbergen battled with Austin Hill for the top spot. As the two drivers made contact, Larson made his move and passed them both to lead the final lap in his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and collect the checkered flag for his 15th Xfinity Series career win.
“It feels really special because seems like every time we’ve run the 17 car, any of us four drivers, we’re always fast on track and somehow give it away,” Larson said. “Today I was definitely not the fastest, but we were patient. I knew the 21 (Hill) had shoved SVG through (Turn) 1 and if he got to him it could get dicey.
“I was just trying to be patient. I was thinking when to make my move and when I saw him shoving him through 15 and 16, I thought this could get good and thankfully I cleared them off in that corner. Pretty crazy. Just wild there, really cool, just awesome to win here at COTA.”
Van Gisbergen led 20 laps in the No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and finished second but was assessed a 30-second post-race penalty for shortcutting the course on the final laps, relegating him to 27th place.
“It was a crazy race and the car got better and better,” van Gisbergen said. “On that last restart, he (Hill) just drove through me in (turn) one. I guess I stood up for myself. But it was pretty awesome racing with (teammate) AJ (Allmendinger) and in the end just turned into a mess. That’s how it is.”
Allmendinger led 20 laps during the race but was caught up in a crash during a battle for the lead and finished in 10th place.
“Not the ending we wanted,” Allmendinger said. “We had a really solid day, I’m proud of everyone on the 16 car for digging and trying to make it better after practice and qualifying yesterday. I was really happy with the speed we had, we missed the last run there by a little bit which was going to cost us winning the race, but we were going to finish second and it was going to be a Kaulig one-two.
“With these late race restarts, you have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. We came out on the wrong end, but we fought hard and happy to restart at the back on the last restart and come back to a 10th-place finish.”
John Hunter Nemechek finished third, followed by Cole Custer in fourth and Parker Kligerman in fifth place. Jesse Love, Austin Green, Chandler Smith, Sam Mayer and Allmendinger rounded out the top 10.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Richmond Raceway next Saturday for the ToyotaCare 250 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with radio coverage provided by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Results:
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