XFINITY: Larson Takes Texas Fill-In Win for Zilisch in Double-Overtime

May 3, 2025; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Kyle Larson (88) celebrates in Victory Lane after he wins the NASCAR Xfinity race at Texas Motor Speedway. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Filling in for an injured Connor Zilisch, Kyle Larson took the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to victory lane in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy's Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

RESULTS: Andy's Frozen Custard 300 at Texas

“Thanks to JRM for letting me come run this thing here today, obviously wish Connor was in the car, but it means a lot that they thought of me to call up to run this thing,” Larson said after collecting the win.

Starting from the 20th position, Larson wasn't the race's dominant driver, but as the 300-mile event trudged on, and contender-by-contender fell by the wayside, Larson found himself in the catbird seat as he cycled out to the race lead as his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier, who had led a race-high 99 laps, crashed attempting to get around Kris Wright's lapped car.

Here is the incident, which put an end to an otherwise dominant day for Justin Allgaier. As he approaches the slower lapped car of Kris Wright, Wright changes lanes several times, and it leads to Allgaier crashing. pic.twitter.com/0JQtCtjfMH

— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) May 3, 2025

Larson would lead 30 laps and appeared to be cruising to the win. Then, a late-race caution for a spin by Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day put Larson's win into question.

The driver of the No. 88 entry would hit pit road for four tires and a handling adjustment, while six cars led by Austin Hill, and Nick Sanchez, remained on track. With less than 10 laps remaining, Larson had some ground to make up.

He did just that.

On the ensuing restart, Larson would knife his way to the third position before Austin Hill would make contact with Sammy Smith, which sent Smith hard into the outside wall on the frontstretch. This would send the race to Overtime

.@_AustinHill gets loose and @sammysmithSS hits the wall with five laps to go!

Get to The CW for OVERTIME!!! pic.twitter.com/DwVfhAUSrl

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) May 3, 2025

On the first Overtime attempt, Larson would move into the runner-up spot behind Sam Mayer before Jeremy Clements backed into the Turn 2 wall to send the race into double-overtime.

As the race went green for the final time, what had seemed inevitable, happened. Larson had the superior tires, he had the superior car, and the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion had superior talent as he zoomed to the finish line to win the race by a margin of 1.265 seconds over Taylor Gray.

Larson was happy he was able to dodge the chaos that occurred throughout the race to have a chance to win the race, and he credited Allgaier for being able to hold him at bay for as long as he did before the crash ended his race.

“There was a lot of survival, it felt like, throughout that race, just dodging some wrecks, balance we had to work on quite a bit, so it was fun,” Larson told The CW after the race. “I feel like my car, if I ever got to the lead I could stretch out, I just couldn’t get by Justin [Allgaier], he was doing a good job of running where I needed to be.”

Riley Herbst, Austin Hill, and Mayer would fill out the top-five finishers, while Harrison Burton, Jesse Love, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Jones, and Jeb Burton capped off the top-10.

Allgaier, the defending series champion, and point leader coming into Saturday's race, was able to exit Texas Motor Speedway with his point lead intact despite a 35th-place finish after the incident with Wright on Lap 156. Allgaier, who turned the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race, holds a 51-point advantage over Hill into the two-week break for the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Like Allgaier, Sheldon Creed found trouble in Saturday's race as he crashed while battling for the second position on Lap 104. Creed was running side-by-side with Jesse Love through Turns 1 and 2, and on the exit of Turn 2, Corey Day snuck his nose into the middle lane between the two drivers.

Creed would make contact with Day, which would send him crashing on the backstretch. Creed would be credited with a 36th-place finish. Creed has now suffered race-ending crashes in three of his last four races, and he's dropped to 11th in the championship standings as a result.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series is set to return for its next race on Saturday, May 24. The Series will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the BetMGM 300, which will be televised on The CW. Television coverage of that race will kick off at 4:30 PM ET.