ROSSBURG, Ohio — The 2022 Castrol FloRacing Night in America season opener was held on Tuesday night at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, where Kyle Larson picked up the $22,022 victory.
While Larson had yet to win a dirt late model race during the 2022 season entering Tuesday’s Castrol FloRacing Night in America season opener at Eldora Speedway, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion had never ever won in a dirt late model at Tony Stewart’s famed half-mile oval where he’s been quite proficient in everything else he’s driven there.
With $22,022 on the line Tuesday in both the opener for the 13-race series as well as the historic track, Larson went ahead and scratched both items off his bucket list.
Overtaking Jonathan Davenport just before the leaders reached lapped traffic on lap nine, Larson dominated the second half of the 30-lap main event on a chilly Spring night in southwest Ohio.
Larson, who had lapped through the seventh-place finisher when the feature’s third and final caution came out on lap 28, easily held on during the final two circuits following the restart.
Larson started from the pole position but dropped back to third in the early going before passing both Brandon Overton and Davenport and finishing 1.397 seconds ahead of Davenport, the tour’s inaugural season champion last year.
Cautions waved on laps one and ten as drivers struggled to adjust to the heavy surface.
“I didn’t get a good restart (following the first caution),” said Larson. “I chose the top, which I thought was good. I just got kind of trapped in (Davenport’s) dirty air into (turn) one and got tight and allowed Brandon (Overton) to get by. I got by (Overton) pretty easily off of (turn) four (on lap four) kind of diamonding across the holes there. It was easier to do in turns three and four than down in one and two but my car was just getting through the holes way better than, it looked like anybody’s.
“But even when I caught Davenport, there, he was starting to bounce up the track and I could turn across and get some more smooth stuff off of (turn) two, so I was able to clear him there and get the lead. It was a lot of fun through traffic. It was super elbows up, really intense.”
Larson was slicing through what few cars remained when sixth-running Kyle Strickler slowed with a flat tire with two laps remaining. The final caution erased a monstrous 5.172-second advantage Larson had built over during an 18-lap green flag run.
“I don’t know where (Davenport) was behind me, but whenever he’s behind me, I’m running scared,” said Larson. “So I was running as hard as I could and when that caution came out (on lap 28) I realized that we’d lapped a lot of cars there and got up to the top (six). So the car was obviously really good. It got through the holes really well. Like I said, with Jonathan Davenport behind you on a track like this, that he’s really strong on, it makes you nervous.”
Davenport said he thought there was little he could do to keep the NASCAR star at bay, whether in traffic or in clean air.
“(Larson) was just a little freer than we was,” said Davenport, whose runner-up finish comes on the heels of last week’s $50,000 XR Super Series triumph at Florida’s All-Tech Raceway. “He could get turned off the top better to the bottom. I could the first of the race and then I got tighter and tighter.
“I think he passed me right before we got lapped traffic actually, but he done a good job, man. It’s definitely rough out there and it was tough. It’s tough on the cars and tough on our bodies, but Longhorn builds a great car. Obviously with the top three, it was a good night for them.”
Overton was the third Longhorn driver to cross under the checkered flag. But the 2021 Dream and World 100 winner fell wall behind the front duo once Larson raced back by to reclaim the second spot. Overton said it only took him a lap or two at the top of the track to make him realize he was happier in the bottom groove.
“Man, that (track) was rough as hell,” said Overton. “I seen ‘em up there and I went up there and bounced a couple times and I’m, like, ‘Nah, I better get my ass back down there on the bottom. It’s just how it is man. I’ve worked my whole life trying to get good in the slick and you know, every now and then you’ll see this. Congrats to Kyle and J.D., they done good. I just can’t go through that stuff like they can. I kinda know my limits there. I just got down in the bottom and didn’t tear nothing up and we’ll go on to Brownstown (Wednesday).”
The Finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1)Kyle Larson 2)Jonathan Davenport 3)Brandon Overton 4)Brandon Sheppard 5)Ricky Thornton Jr. 6)Kyle Strickler 7)Hudson O’Neal 8)Ryan Gustin 9)Tyler Courtney 10)Tyler Erb 11)Bobby Pierce 12)Spencer Hughes 13)Ross Robinson 14)Stormy Scott 15)Daulton Wilson 16)Zach Dohm 17)Max Blair 18)Tim McCreadie 19)Ashton Winger 20)Shanon Babb 21)Ryan Missler 22)Mike Marlar