NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Kyle Larson woke up Sunday (May 19) morning in Speedway, Ind., staring down a Fast 12 qualifying run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In a matter of hours, Larson qualified fifth for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, jumped on a plane and flew to Wilkes County, N.C., and put in a 20th to fourth run in the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
It was certainly quite the day for Larson, but as we’ve come to expect, he was competitive every time he was behind the wheel. Even without a single lap on track all weekend at North Wilkesboro, Larson was in contention for the win at the end.
Larson dropped to the rear of the field ahead of the green, due to a driver change after Kevin Harvick practiced and qualified the car on Friday and Saturday.
From the drop of the green, Larson began a methodical march to the front, even on a night that saw passing be exceptionally challenging. Larson climbed to 13th by the lap 100 competition caution.
A great stop on pit road by the No. 5 team gained Larson some track position, before Larson battled as high as sixth before falling to seventh at lap 150. It was then that strategy came into play.
As the top six cars stayed on track, crew chief Cliff Daniels elected to bring the No. 5 down pit road for a fresh set of the red sidewall “Option” tires. Larson began storming through the field on the restart, quickly climbing to third in a matter of laps.
For a moment, it looked as though 2023 was set to repeat itself at North Wilkesboro. However, that is where the run stalled, as Larson burnt up his tires running the inside underneath second-place runner Denny Hamlin for laps on end.
Hamlin and eventual race winner Joey Logano got away from Larson, as he eventually fell back into the clutches of Chris Buescher. The two battled hard in the closing laps, with Buescher stealing a podium spot in the final moments of the race.
“I was happy with the call to pit,” Larson said. “And then we had a really good restart and I got to third pretty quickly, and I thought I was in the best spot to win. I thought for sure we’d win, but my car just built really loose, and then I kind of had to move up to the top and they just started driving away from me and the guys from behind were catching me pretty quickly.”
Unlike the rest of the All-Star field, the drop…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …