Photo – Kyle Magda
Sprint Cup rookie Kyle Larson logged laps in Saturday’s Pocono ARCA 200 but passed Mason Mitchell with three laps to go to score the victory.
Mitchell wrestled the lead away from Larson on a restart with ten to go.
“The initial start I was judging where he (Larson) looked at,” Mitchell said. “He went in there a little harder than me and cleared him off the Tunnel Turn.”
Larson was the dominant car on the day by leading 66 of 80 laps but had to work for the win in the end.
“I was surprised there,” Larson said. “That last restart. We had a really good car all day and he (Mitchell) was able to get the jump on me and pull away. I thought I ran a couple of good laps and still inched away from me.”
The 21-year-old driver started to reel in Mitchell until making the pass for the win with three laps to go.
“We caught a little bit of traffic and seemed like it upset him in Turn Two,” he added. “He overdrove the corner a little bit and I was able to get a run on him and get to his inside. It was a lot of fun.”
Larson used the race as a tune-up to Sunday’s Pocono 400 and will start 14th in his No. 42 Cup car.
The only hiccup on the day for the Cup rookie was serving a pass-through penalty for a blending line violation coming out of the pits. After the penalty, Larson still maintained a five-second lead over Matt Tifft.
Tifft had a strong run going until getting caught up in a late-race accident with Justin Boston. The 17-year-old continued on, and Boston’s day came to an end.
Justin Allison ran up front most of the day and scored his career-best ARCA finish with a fifth.
Camping World Truck series driver John Wes Townley finished third and ARCA regular Will Kimmel took fourth.
Four of the top five finishers combined for two ARCA wins.
ARCA will next visit the Michigan International Speedway on Friday, June 13. It will air live on FOX Sports 1 at 5 p.m.
Pocono ARCA 200 Top Ten
#4 Kyle Larson
#98 Mason Mitchell
#15 John Wes Townley
#69 Will Kimmel
#88 Justin Allison
#6 Josh Williams
#44 Frank Kimmel
#90 Grant Enfinger
#55 Cody Coughlin
#3 Karl Weber