NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C.—With the 4.5-second lead Kyle Larson extended over the field in the All-Star Race at North WIlkesboro, finishing on the podium was the best that most drivers could hope for on Sunday.
23XI Racing did just that. Bubba Wallace finished second, with teammate Tyler Reddick crossing the line 6.7 seconds behind the No. 5 Chevrolet.
Following a speeding penalty in the first 20 laps, Larson came from the rear and seized the point 35 laps later. With the exception of relinquishing the lead in the pits during the competition break at Lap 101, Larson led all but one of the last 146 laps.
“We were the best of the rest,” Wallace said. “Reddick wanted it. I went to go let him have it, and he slipped up. So I was like, ‘OK, guess you don’t want it. So we beat the rest of the group.
“Really happy. I mean second overall is good. No mistakes. Clean race. I keep saying when you have clean races with the 23 group, good finishes come. So it’s just nice to see us backing that up.”
Wallace started 10th. Following an early caution involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Eric Jones, the 23XI teams elected to pit for tires. Larson did as well but a speeding penalty dropped him behind Reddick and Wallace. Ten laps into the run, he passed Wallace and Reddick. Twenty-four laps later, Larson seized the lead.
“We were ahead of him at one point, and then I made a mistake and let him get by when we did take tires there,” said Reddick, who performed the tire test at North Wilkesboro in April. “So it makes you wonder. But certainly, you don’t know how much he’s saving or any of that stuff. Really only he knows that.”
With less than 30 laps remaining in the first half of the race, Wallace passed Reddick to return to the top 10 and continued to march forward. By Lap 90, Larson had checked out to a 10-second lead. Five laps later, Wallace passed Joey Logano for second. But by the end of the first stage, Larson’s advantage was nearly 13 seconds and he had lapped six drivers—including former champions Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr.
Larson maintained the lead out of the pits. Wallace held second-place with a two-tire stop. Polesitter Daniel Suarez lined up third alongside Saturday’s second heat winner, Chris Buescher, while Reddick restarted fifth. Less than 10 laps into the second half of the event, Larson stretched out his lead, and the 23XI teammates battled for second.
“It’s no secret clean air is great for taking care of the tire degradation,” Reddick said. “I definitely ran really close to Bubba for a while there. Certainly, he was pretty good. Be interesting to see if the roles were reversed, right, what would happen?”
As Larson encountered traffic, Wallace was able to cut into the his lead. Yet even Larson’s fellow teammates on the No. 48 team quipped he was “in another zip code.”
“He’s one of the best to ever do it, so it’s pretty cool,” Wallace said of Larson. “I think I closed within a second—well, I gained a second on him—I was three-and-a-half back. So I don’t know if he felt that, but I did. He got a little bit bigger.”
That was all Wallace could ask for on Sunday. Certainly, his best finish in an All-Star Race is a morale builder for the 29-year-old driver who has faced his share of adversity—and brought some of the criticism on himself following last year’s run-in with Larson at Las Vegas, which led to a one-race suspension.
Overall, Wallace is encouraged by the progress that his team has made this year. The addition of Reddick to the fold has been beneficial. Wallace is focused on racing at his home track—Charlotte Motor Speedway—this weekend. He feels intermediate tracks provide a stage where he can shine.
“Ever since we got thrown out, we’ve been in redemption mode,” Wallace said. “Our name’s been in the hat for every mile-and-a-half race this season. So we got to keep that going and just continue to ride this momentum train that we’re on.
“We continue to make strides, continue to build this team up and produce good results. We have some similarities and some differences to work on and just continue to make this team better. So proud of where we’re at, but we still got a lot of work to go.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer.
