Kyle Larson held off a hard charging Joey Logano to capture the win at the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at The Rock Sunday afternoon. This was his first NASCAR national series win in five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts and his first top-ten finish in 2013. Larson currently drives full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Larson was dominant all afternoon, leading 187 laps, but the biggest threat came in the last 25 laps of the race.
Logano had dropped to 18th after he had to pit under green to fix loose lug nuts. But a caution on lap 180 gave Logano the lucky break he needed to make a final pit stop and put on four fresh tires. He methodically made his way to the front and was in second place when the last caution fell.
“I was passing a ton of cars on the newer tires,” Logano said. “That’s Rockingham for you. That’s what makes this race track so cool, because you can play a strategy like that. When we got the last caution, I thought it was playing out perfect for us.”
Larson was apprehensive, but determined.
“I was pretty nervous on that last restart because Joey was on a lot newer tires than me, and I’m not normally the best on restarts.”
It was the veteran Logano, however, who made the mistake on the green-white-checkered start.
“I just got beat. I spun my tires, so it was all my fault. I was so mad at myself. I felt like we should have won this race. We might not have had the truck to win, but we had the strategy to win.”
Larson was all smiles after the race.
“It was a great day,” he said. “We didn’t make any changes to the truck; it was perfect from the start. It was a lot of fun today.”
Joey Logano finished in second place. Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Sauter and Chase Elliot rounded out the top five.
Johnny Sauter remains the unofficial points leader. Jeb Burton is 16 points behind in second place. Matt Crafton is third followed by Ron Hornaday Jr. in fourth and Ryan Blaney in fifth.
Hornaday met with NASCAR after the race and may face further sanctions for wrecking Darrell Wallace Jr. under caution during the final laps of the race.
Wallace finished a disappointing 27th. Hornaday was penalized at the time of the incident for aggressive driving and sent to the rear of the field. He finished the race in 15th place.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| N.C. Edu. Lottery 200 at The Rock | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=3 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 3 | 30 | Kyle Larson(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 2 | 7 | 19 | Joey Logano(i) | Ford | 0 |
| 3 | 9 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 4 | 11 | 98 | Johnny Sauter | Toyota | 41 |
| 5 | 4 | 94 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 5 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Toyota | 38 |
| 7 | 1 | 4 | Jeb Burton # | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 8 | 6 | 29 | Ryan Blaney # | Ford | 36 |
| 9 | 36 | 51 | Erik Jones # | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 18 | 32 | Miguel Paludo | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 11 | 26 | 7 | John Wes Townley | Toyota | 33 |
| 12 | 14 | 3 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 32 |
| 13 | 17 | 18 | Joey Coulter | Toyota | 31 |
| 14 | 2 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 15 | 16 | 9 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 15 | 8 | Max Gresham | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | 8 | 60 | Dakoda Armstrong | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 30 | 5 | Tim George Jr. | Ford | 26 |
| 19 | 23 | 77 | German Quiroga # | Toyota | 25 |
| 20 | 25 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 24 |
| 21 | 24 | 14 | Brennan Newberry # | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 12 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | 31 | 99 | Bryan Silas | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | 22 | 6 | Tyler Young | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 28 | 92 | Clay Rogers | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 20 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 10 | 54 | Darrell Wallace Jr. # | Toyota | 17 |
| 28 | 32 | 7 | Johnny Chapman | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 21 | 75 | Caleb Holman | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 30 | 13 | 52 | Tyler Reddick | Toyota | 14 |
| 31 | 34 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | 13 | |
| 32 | 19 | 13 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 12 |
| 33 | 35 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 11 |
| 34 | 29 | 93 | Chris Jones | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 35 | 27 | 27 | Jeff Agnew | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | 33 | 84 | Mike Harmon(i) | Ford | 0 |
