Arab Times

Larson holds off Keselowski to win 2nd NASCAR All-Star race

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FORT WORTH, Texas, June 14, (AP): Kyle Larson was back in the NASCAR All-Star race, and got another $1 million by winning it again.

Larson held off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski during the final 10-lap shootout at Texas, after a slippery three-wide pass for the lead, and pushed Hendrick Motorsport­s to its second consecutiv­e win, and 10th overall, in the annual non-points race with a seven-figure prize.

Defending All-Star winner and reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott, who started the sixth and final segment of the 100-lap race out front, didn’t stay there long.

Larson pushed his teammate, then got in front on the outside through the fourth turn. They were three-wide before Keselowski pulled ahead briefly at the line, then Larson got ahead to stay for the last eight laps.

“That last restart worked out exactly how I needed it to. I wanted Chase to not get a good run down the back,” Larson said.

“Thankfully, I think (Keselowski) got to his inside, and I just shoved him down the back and he probably thought I was going to just follow him and I was like, there’s got to be enough grip where we’d be running for one corner,” he said. “It was a little slick up there but I was able to get it and hold him off from there. I can’t believe it.”

CAR RACING

Larson said he had nearly all four tires in a groove above where they had been running laps. He had decided earlier that he’d go for it if given the chance.

“No points on the line ... If I wreck, I wreck,” he said.

Crew chief Cliff Daniels said he didn’t even think there was a lane up there, “and he put it up there, and it stuck.”

Larson has gone to Victory Lane three weekends in a row, and four times overall this season.

Keselowski said running second to Hendrick cars these days is somewhat of an accomplish­ment.

“They’re just stupid fast, and I had him off of Turn 4 but they just have so much speed,” Keselowski said. “He just motored right on back by me, like damn.”

Larson was with Chip Ganassi Racing when he won the 2019 All-Star race. He missed last year’s big event at Bristol while serving a six-month suspension after using a racial slur during a livestream while in a virtual race during the pandemic. That nearly cost him his career, but Rick Hendrick gave him an opportunit­y this season to get back into the Cup Series.

Second in points with 10 races to go before the playoffs, Larson now only the eighth driver to be a two-time AllStar race winner. Elliott finished third, ahead of Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman. William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Bush and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10 in the 21-car field.

 ??  ?? Pato O’Ward celebrates after winning the second race of the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix auto racing doublehead­er on Belle Isle in Detroit, on June 13. (AP)
Pato O’Ward celebrates after winning the second race of the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix auto racing doublehead­er on Belle Isle in Detroit, on June 13. (AP)
 ??  ?? Kyle Larson celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 13. (AP)
Kyle Larson celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 13. (AP)

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