How Kyle Larson overcame adversity for Eldora victory
Kyle Larson proved once again just how talented he is on a dirt track after storming through the field to win Wednesday night's Aspen Dental Dirt Derby at Eldora Speedway.
Larson looked like one of the trucks to beat after taking the lead away from Bobby Pierce early on in the main event.
But, shortly after reporting to his No. 24 crew that the tire was going down while leading, Larson's right-rear blew coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 52.
After losing the tire, NASCAR ruled that Larson purposely brought out the caution by spinning across the frontstretch, resulting in a one-lap penalty.
By the time the seventh caution came out for Ben Rhodes hitting the wall just before the end of the second segment, Larson had worked his way back up to seventh.
And that was just the beginning of his remarkable comeback.
After spending 20 laps one lap down after his incident, Larson took the lead after a restart with 31 laps remaining.
Pierce and Larson traded the lead as the laps twindled down, but it was Larson who took it for good and never looked back after Pierce hit the wall, bringing out a the final caution on with 24 laps to go.
"I love to be back here on dirt," said Larson in Victory Lane. "This definitely means a lot, especially losing the way I did the two (previous) years I ran here."
