Kyle Larson was the man to beat Saturday afternoon as he took his No. 42 into Victory Lane in the History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.
He had been running in the five all afternoon but put the moves on Brad Keselowski on lap 119 and took the lead. Lapped traffic had closed the gap between the leader Keselowski and a charging Kyle Larson. In a daring move, Larson squeezed his Chevy close to the wall making it three-wide as Keselowski ran the bottom line to get around a lapped car. It appeared Larson didn’t lift the throttle and powered to the front where he stayed until the checkered flag was displayed.
Keselowski and Kyle Busch also had a close call in the closing laps when lapped traffic allowed Busch to get up to Keselowski and they weaved skillfully around slower cars, but Busch couldn’t make it around Keselowski’s No. 22.
It was thought that Busch would dominate the race as he qualified on the pole and led the first portion of the race, but he would fight an ill-handling r ace car and finished third. He crashed his race car in practice and his crew actually removed the car from the race track where they repaired it at the race shop. It wouldn’t do the trick but Busch had a top three finish.
Chase Elliott would enter the History 300 as the points leader, but he would leave in a different position in the points. He ran over a piece of debris on the racetrack on lap 87 which caused tire issue. He hit the wall where a problem occurred with the suspension. His crew worked on the car and he came back out on the track 26 laps later. He would finish in the 37th spot which knocked him down to third in points.
Elliott’s bad news became Regan Smith’s good news as he moved into the points lead with his seventh place finish in the History 300.
Chris Buescher was the highest finishing rookie as he came in ninth. He was named the Sunoco Rookie of the Race. Chase Elliott continues to lead the overall points for Sunoco Rookie of the Year.
Only three cautions littered the race with a spin by Ryan Sieg on lap 25, and debris spotted on laps 88 and 171.
The top ten: Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brian Scott, Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher and Ty Dillon.
The next NASCAR Nationwide Series race will be Saturday, May 31 at 2:30 p.m. ET for the Buckle up 200 presented by Click it or Ticket at Dover International Speedway.
