Kyle Larson closed out a full week of racing with his first victory in the Wild West Shootout at Vado Speedway Park.
The Shootout is an annual series of six races in eight nights at the dirt track in New Mexico that welcomes some of the biggest names in Super Late Models to race for big money over the course of the week.
This is the second year in a row that Larson has entered the full week of racing in the Kevin Rumley No. 6 but he had yet to win a race in the mini-series against a field of national touring division regulars until Sunday night.
This was also the highest paying of the nightly features as this one paid $26,000-to-win compared to the rest of the week’s races that paid $11,000-to-win.
Larson ultimately denied a win from Bobby Pierce, the reigning World of Outlaws champion, who was seeking a $100,000 bonus for winning four of the six races. He began chasing the Piece down during the second green flag run after a caution.
The winning pass was made with six laps to go when Larson ran into the back of Pierce. Larson would complete the remaining six laps uncontested.
“I felt like before the caution, my tires were coming in good,” Larson said in Victory Lane. “I had good traction at that point. The top was starting to come in in Turns 1 and 2. The restart worked out for me to get to second and started making mistakes trying to get around Bobby.
“I started peeking at the board to see how many laps were left. Just pushing too hard. He’d get away but I’d get right back to him. I think our tire selection was just better than his. That’s all. My car was good against the cushion. It wasn’t good on the bottom early but up top. Huge ‘thank you’ to everyone on this team for busting their butts.
“It’s been a pretty miserable couple of weeks. A lot of work went into Victory Lane and it’s cool to get in Victory Lane here.”
The ‘work’ is that Larson crashed his primary car in a heat race on Friday to cap off what had been a challenged week in that car. For whatever reason, the backup suited his needs way better and he has contended for wins all weekend. He was fastest qualifier on Sunday too.
He finally broke through on Sunday and was relieved to hear that Pierce actually suffered the flat tire before Larson ran into the back of him.
“That’s good to know because I got underneath him and I just assumed it was my nose that cut his tire,” Larson said. “I wasn’t going to get too excited taking the lead that way. I hate that for Bobby whether I gave him the flat or not.
“He was racing for a lot of money too. It’s always good to race with Bobby. Him and I have similar driving styles. He’s fun to race. I was thinking it was about to get good there into 1 but it was all for naught on his end.
“He’s done a great job and I’m sure they’ll have a better season than last year.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.