NASCAR
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Coming into the Shriners Children’s 200, many eyes were already on Kyle Larson. Despite being winless in any NASCAR series at Darlington, the Cup veteran was a prerace favorite for the Xfinity race.
Larson flexed his muscles early on, taking Stage 1 and narrowly losing out on Stage 2. John Hunter Nemechek just beat Larson out in a photo-finish for this Stage win.
Stage 2 would also be slowed midway thanks to a huge restart stackup in turn four. Sheldon Creed attempted a three-wide divebomb move but was unable to clear his competitors. The 2 slid up into traffic and caused a massive junkyard behind him. Ironically enough, Creed’s teammate Austin Hill also spun trying to avoid the melee, creating a synchronized spin between both RCR cars.
The day became a lot less easy for Larson the 10 team for Stage 3 however, with a pit road speeding penalty. Thanks to a few timely cautions, Larson was on Nemechek’s bumper at the white flag.
Going into turn three, Larson tried but failed at a slide job, allowing the 20 to have another run off of turn four. Coming to the checkers, the 10 bounced off the outside wall, sending the 20 hard into the inside wall.
“I was able to pack air on him and get to his inside,” Larson said. “Just side-drafted really tough there, like we were bouncing off each other just a little bit. I’m not sure what happened into (turn) three, but it seemed like he tried to get in behind me to shove me into the corner. That kind of hooked me right, I hit the wall, and I just had to try and stay away from him to try and get off of (turn) four. What an exciting race there.”
“I thought we could race it out, getting into each other similar to what he did to me at the end of the second Stage. He got me free in (turns) one and two, got to my inside, threw a slide job on me, I crossed him over and we drag-raced to the line. Was kind of thinking it would be like that at the finish, but it obviously didn’t play out that way.”
“The throwback weekend is so much fun. Thanks to Rick Hendrick, Kaulig Racing, Hendrickcars.com, this has been a lot of fun, getting to race for their team. It’s been really smooth getting adjusted to them. Really great guys and an awesome racecar too.”
Behind Larson, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, and Austin Hill were all scored ahead of John Hunter Nemechek at the finish. The rest of the top-10 were: Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry, Sam Mayer, Kaz Grala and Corey Heim. Hear from some of these top finishers below.
After an off-week, Xfinity cars will return to action at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Alsco Uniforms 300 will go green Saturday, May 27th at 1:00 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Charlotte last year was a duel between two JR Motorsports cars, they enter this year’s race still winless as a company. Can we see a new 2023 winner at everyone’s home race?
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR
