Another well-known name was back in victory lane at this weekend’s Nittany Showdown at Port Royal Speedway. As the rumor mill continues to heat up about where former NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson is going to land in this popular stock car series, this talented driver is continuing to blow away the competition in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and this was definitely the case after he swept this doubleheader weekend.
While Larson had the dominate car on Friday night at the half mile dirt racetrack in Port Royal, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, the Kasey Kahne Racing driver would have to come back from a fourth place starting position during Saturday night’s race before earning his 20th career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victory. Despite this, when the green flag waved on this race Larson wasted little time to catapult himself from fourth to second on the opening lap. As Larson continued to fight for the lead, pole sitter Lance Dewease used clean air to his advantage and gapped Larson by about a second in the opening laps. However, he almost lost everything when he hit the wall in Turn 2.
After keeping his throttle control and steering in line, Dewease was able to recover from his mistake and stay in the lead, but this misstep allowed Larson to close in. As he continued to get Dewease within his reach, Larson began to make his move for the race lead. On Lap 10, Larson was finally able to make his move for the race lead and quickly did what it took to put his Finley Farms No. 57 on top.
As the laps wound down in this race, Larson would find himself having to compete with lapped traffic, which allowed the No. 5 of Brent Marks to fight for his first Series win in 2020. With three laps to go Marks thought that he would finally accomplish this feat, that is until the caution flag flew again. Larson got held up by the lap car of Spencer Bayston while trying to pass him around the bottom, giving Marks a surprising run around the top to power around Larson for the lead down the backstretch. Seconds later, yellow lights flashed around the track for Kerry Madsen, who stopped on the track with a right front issue. This gave Larson a chance to keep the lead as the green flag waved for the final lap on Saturday night. Following the restart, Larson launched ahead of Marks on the start and pulled away to his 12th Series victory of the season as well as a $15,000 win.
“I definitely got really lucky there,” said Larson. “I really had an awesome car, and I cannot thank my team enough. I definitely could not have pulled off this win without them.”
While his latest win has not put Larson in the points championship hunt, due to his limited schedule, with five races remaining this season, there are five more chances for Larson to add a new World of Outlaws record to his book before making his return to NASCAR. The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series returns to racing at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS. Stay tuned to RacingJunk.com for the latest in the dirt racing news.
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