Darlington, S.C. — For most of Saturday’s O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Series race, it looked like a familiar sight when Kyle Larson was in the field. Pure domination and running away with a win — just the way he likes it. Racing double duty to run races in the NOAP Series, the expectation is exactly that for Larson vs the rest of the competition.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion led the field to the green flag after winning the pole earlier in the day. Larson held serve for the opening two stages, and when the lead was relinquished between the first two stages on pit sequences, he would quickly make way and reclaim it.
A caution in the final stage put him in third behind Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones on the pit sequence, and he was able to make quick work of them both to reclaim the lead.
The third stage spelled a different story during late-race pit stops when the driver of the No. 88 bled three positions, then chose the top to restart the race in fifth behind Corey Day with 15 laps remaining.
When the field took the green flag, Larson was on the high side and, within one turn, cleared the cars behind him. However, the leaders separated without any opportunity for Larson to catch them and compete for the win after a strong run for the majority of the day.
Larson was only able to improve one spot to finish in fourth, passing Day and finishing behind fellow Cup driver, Christopher Bell while Allgaier went on to win the race.
“We gave up what we had, got it back on the longer run,” Larson said post-race. “When you give up more than a row, it’s difficult.”
Larson led 107 of the 147 laps, with only winner Allgaier, who led 31 laps, and Jones, who finished second and led nine laps, as the only other drivers to lead in the race.
Larson noted the difference in pace when his car was in traffic later in the race compared to earlier when he was able to drive back to the front.
“The pace was different to start [the third stage], I lost a spot and gave up a row,” Larson explained. “We were all trying to make the tires live to go 45 laps or whatever it was going to be.”
At the end, when you know it’s going to be 15 laps, everybody is going to push harder, and it just brings the pace up. It becomes harder to pass.”
When it came down to what exactly happened on that final sequence of stops, Larson himself did not know at that time.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened. I don’t know,” he reflected. “We just had a slow stop.”
In his post-race press conference, Allgaier noted what Larson was doing with lane selection and pointed to that as what helped him win at the end, regardless of Larson being in contention or not.
“Two restarts before that [final restart], the No. 88 chose the bottom and gave me the top, and that made the difference,” he explained.
Though Larson didn’t win, he did tell the CW afterwards that he enjoyed the race overall.
“It was really fun on the long runs, sliding around, lapping cars,” Larson said. “[Tire wear] had me nervous in the final stage, but I was going to have fun going really long.”
The standard for Larson in any race is to win; racing in another series, it’s dominance, previously making comments saying he expects nothing less than whipping the field. Regardless of the talent, speed and dominance a driver of his caliber can have, any driver on any given race weekend, and on any team, can be tamed.
Why the slow pit stop? Nothing here, nothing on the broadcast.