Kyle Larson scored his first High Limit Sprint Car Series win in his fourth start at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio in Sheldon Haudenschild’s Buckey Brawl.
The win capped off a perfect record of top-five finishes this season in the series Larson co-owns with brother-in-law Brad Sweet and continues a trend of finishing better in each successive start. Last year in the single event run by High Limit, Larson finished 10th at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana in a race won by Michael “Buddy” Kofoid. Larson was running second in that race until he cut a tire.
Larson avoided disappointment Tuesday night, leading 28 of the 35 laps at Wayne County and banking $35,023 for his effort. The High Limit Series was launched in an effort to bring high-dollar payouts for midweek races and part of Larson’s winnings included a $3,000 bounty for beating the eponymous promoter of the race.
Larson now has six major wins this season with two NASCAR Cup series victories, one in the Xfinity Series, one in Lucas Oil Late Models, one in the Superbowl of Racing and one in the All-Star Circuit of champions.
Larson also won a DIRTcar Modified race at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio earlier this year to give him 10 wins in seven divisions on that track.
MORE: Gio Scelzi wins 2023 High Limit season opener at Lakeside Speedway
Haudenschild was reared 15 minutes away from the track in Wooster, Ohio and the High Limit race was a chance to give back to his local racing community. Haudenschild sits fifth in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series standing with one win and four top-fives in 19 starts, but he was unsuccessful in his bid to win his home track race, finishing 10th after starting ninth at Wayne County.
Starting third, it took just two laps for Larson to pass Justin Sanders for second and three more laps to take the lead from Chase Randall. From then on, Larson cruised to victory after beginning to lap the field on Lap 20.
Sanders held onto second place, but Randall went over the wall in Turn 2 with one lap remaining and finished 20th. Randall climbed from the car and walked to the ambulance.
MORE: Three races, three winners with Anthony Macri victorious at 34 Raceway
Justin Peck assumed third in the final rundown with Brian Brown in fourth. Rico Abreu rounded out the top five.
Larson entered the race tied with Tyler Courtney for the points lead, but Courtney crashed with eight laps remaining. Courtney finished 22nd, which dropped him to fifth in the standings, 33 markers behind Larson.
The winner at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa in the most recent High Limit Sprint Car race, Anthony Macri moved to second behind Larson in the standings.
The promise of a big payday brought 54 entrants to the track and the 0.375-mile dirt track started a field of 26 cars.
Race 3 is in the books, and it was a #JimDandy!@KyleLarsonRacin and @BradSweetRacing recapped a fun Tuesday at @WCSOhio with the @FloRacing folks. 🎥👇🏼
— High Limit Racing (@HighLimitRacing) May 17, 2023
pic.twitter.com/YYwXmGdbUP