“An old-school as*-whipping,” Kyle ‘Million Dollar’ Larson sweeps North Wilkesboro, secures historic NASCAR All-Star race win besting Bubba Wallace

It was the third All-Star race win of Kyle Larson’s career.

“An old-school as*-whipping,” Kyle ‘Million Dollar’ Larson sweeps North Wilkesboro, secures historic NASCAR All-Star race win besting Bubba Wallace

Kyle Larson wins at NWBS (Credits: RACER)

Hendrick Motorsports Kyle Larson has won the inaugural North Wilkesboro All-Star race. It’s the third exhibition race win of the 2021 Cup champions career from seven starts. All three of his wins came in the last five seasons. With the win at NWBS, he became the only driver to win All-Star races in three different tracks and the first Cup winner since Jeff Gordan in 1996.

Larson won the Truck Series race the track hosted on Saturday. This makes him the first driver to win the Cup and Truck races at the track on the same day. The No:5 Chevy Camaro ZL1 was slid all day, and Larson’s tire-preserving mastery helped him become a Millionaire for a third time. He won the 200 laps race from P16.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3S82rks9XI&pp=ygULS3lsZSBsYXJzb24%3D

He led 145 of the 200 laps to score the win. Larson’s win was convincing as Bubba Wallace, who took the P2 soon after Kyle Larson overtook pole sitter Daniel Suarez was 3.7 seconds behind the winner when he crossed the finish line. Both drivers were on the same strategy; hence Wallace had a minimal chance to outrace the HMS driver.

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“So much fun there. That was an old-school ass-whipping, for sure. We had a great car on the long run there and were just thinking for sure there was going to be a caution. I got out to a big lead, and I could see everybody’s cars were driving like crap in front of me, but I cannot thank this 5 team enough,” Kyle Larson said about the win.

Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick secured P3 ahead of Stewart Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe at P4. Larson’s HMS teammate Chase Elliott secured yet another Top 5 finishing as his chase for a desperate win continues. Last year’s winner Ryan Blaney finished the race at P6 ahead of pole-sitter Daniel Suarez at P7. Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, and Joey Logano secured the remaining spots in the top 10.

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The victory is pretty special for Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson at NWBS
Cliff Daniels and Kyle Larson at NWBS (Credits: @NASCAR)

Larson pointed out that the third All-Star race wins are pretty special for him, and winning it in three tracks makes it more special. He said, “I can’t even tell you what it means. This is my third All-Star win and my third different track. In a historical place like that, you guys and the crowd made this weekend so awesome. We could feel the atmosphere all weekend,”.

The two times Cup race winner of 2023 claimed that the No:5 team was struggling the whole weekend to extract enough pace from the car till Sunday. Cliff Daniel’s race strategy played a huge part in his win.

“We were God awful all weekend. Practice I was like the worst on 30-lap average, went backwards in a heat race yesterday. We obviously had some strategy work out there in the beginning, but we drove from dead last to the lead and checked out by 12 or 13 seconds (before the competition caution at Lap 101). Then I just could pace myself there that last run,” Larson added.

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