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FORT WORTH, Texas — Crew chief Mardy Lindley called his shot.
“We’ve got to stop to win,” Lindley radioed to driver Kyle Larson, subbing for injured Connor Zilisch in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Lindley was right. Larson made a late pit stop and proceeded to win Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in two overtimes.
The victory was Larson’s second of the season, his second at Texas and the 17th of his career, with Larson charging from the seventh position on a Lap-194 restart — behind six cars that stayed out on older tires — to win in two extra periods.
On Lap 188, Larson was cruising to a probable win with a lead of more than six seconds when Corey Day — in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Larson drove to a dominating win at Bristol in mid-April — hit the tire barrier on the inside of Turn 3 to cause the ninth of 11 cautions.
That’s when Lindley made the call to bring Larson to pit road, and ultimately it paid off. After moving from third to second on the first overtime restart, Larson took the lead from defending race winner Sam Mayer in the second overtime and pulled away to win by 1.265 seconds over Taylor Gray, who surged from fourth to second in the final two laps.
“It was a lot of survival, I felt like in that race,” Larson said. “I got in some wrecks, the balance we had to work on quite a bit. So, it was fun. I felt like if I could ever get the lead, I could stretch it out, but I couldn’t get by Justin (Allgaier). He was running where I needed to be.
“Thanks to JRM for letting me come run this thing here today. Obviously, I wish Connor was in the car, but it means a lot that they thought of me to call up to run this thing.”
As Larson worked his way through the field twice — once from the 20th starting position and again after an uncontrolled tire penalty sent him to the rear after the first stage break — Allgaier led a race-high 99 laps and kept Larson at bay until a cycle of green-flag pit stops in the final stage scrambled the running order.
It was during that cycle that Allgaier’s race came to an untimely end. Running 12th after pitting on Lap 153, Allgaier closed fast on the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kris Wright near the exit from Turn 4.
Wright failed to hold the bottom lane and drifted up the track into Allgaier’s line. Allgaier made a move toward the inside but couldn’t avoid Wright’s car. The No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet slammed into the outside wall in the tri-oval, slid down onto the infield grass and ended the race on a wrecker.
Allgaier, who had lost position to Larson during the pit sequence, was gracious in his assessment of the wreck that ended his day.
“The hard part is, ultimately it falls on my shoulders,” Allgaier said. “We’d about gotten crashed a couple laps before the green-flag stop there, and I think they had some damage and he (Wright) was having a bit of a tough time with his race car, and I’m trying to catch back to the 88 and trying to push and ultimately put myself in a bad position…
“Kyle and I had a great battle, and I was having a lot of fun with it. Obviously, the guy’s ultra-fast in anything that he drives… I think probably the most disappointing part about today is that it’s my mom’s birthday. I would love to get a trophy and celebrate her birthday with that, but instead I’m standing here talking to you guys.”
Allgaier’s exit opened the door for Mayer, Gray, Austin Hill and Nick Sanchez. Driving the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet, Sanchez ran consistently in the top five until the second overtime, when he hit the wall and dropped to 20th at the finish.
Riley Herbst finished third after restarting sixth in the final overtime, with Hill coming home fourth, Mayer fifth and Harrison Burton sixth. Jesse Love, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Jones and Jeb Burton completed the top 10.
