Kyle Larson soared to a come-from-behind NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday, slipping by front-runners Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill in the final lap of double overtime at Circuit of The Americas.
Larson led only the last of the 50 laps in the Focused Health 250, driving his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet under the checkered flag with a 1.354-second margin of victory. The Cup Series regular won in his first Xfinity Series start of the season, collecting the 15th win of his Xfinity career.
Contact between van Gisbergen and Hill with half a lap remaining allowed Larson to scoot by on fresher tires and pull away. Van Gisbergen led 20 laps and appeared to came home as the runner-up in the No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, but a 30-second post-race penalty for shortcutting the course in the final laps knocked him to a 27th-place result.
Hill was elevated to a runner-up finish in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 Chevy. John Hunter Nemechek placed third with Cole Custer fourth and Parker Kligerman fifth.
Van Gisbergen and Kaulig teammate AJ Allmendinger combined to lead 24 of the first 30 laps through the first two stages, but both drivers went to pit road in a strategy play in the waning laps before each break. Both rotated back into the top five after the pit-stop cycle completed before the start of each stage.
Larson dropped to the rear of the field before the start after his Hendrick Motorsports crew replaced a cracked brake rotor on his No. 17 Chevy. He recovered to challenge van Gisbergen and Allmendinger through the middle stage of the race.
Allmendinger finished 10th after a penalty for shorting the course in the closing laps.
The Xfinity Series’ next race is scheduled next Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Richmond Raceway.
