FORT WORTH, Texas — Last year’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway produced the second closest finish in series history.
Sam Mayer beat Ryan Sieg to the finish line by 0.002 seconds last spring in a drag race to the stripe.
Kyle Larson, on the other hand, prefers to win by as large a margin as possible, as he did in April at Bristol, where he led 276 laps and won by 2.054 seconds in his second Xfinity start of the season.
Larson, however, won’t be in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
In fact, he wasn’t scheduled to race at all until JR Motorsports rookie Connor Zilisch withdrew because of a back injury he sustained in a hard crash at Talladega.
As a consequence, Larson will be driving the No. 88 JRM Camaro, competing against teammate and series leader Justin Allgaier.
“Texas has been a strong track for us the last few years,” said Allgaier, who finished third behind Mayer and Sieg last spring. “We were close last year, and I know that we are going to have that same speed when we unload on Friday.
“Everyone on this Jarrett team is ready to go, and we know what we need to do to be just those couple spots better at the end on Saturday.”
For their part, Sieg and Mayer will both be competing in the event, with Sieg in his familiar No. 39 and Mayer having now moved to the Haas Factory Team No. 41.
