NASCAR star Kyle Larson wins Don Martin Silver Cup to continue mastery of Lernerville

Kyle Larson added to what has become an impeccable run of results at Lernerville Speedway on Tuesday night.

Larson passed Buddy Kofoid on lap 18 en route to a second consecutive win in the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup, earning a $25,000 pay day with the All Star Circuit of Champions.

It was the third win in the event overall for Larson, who races in the NASCAR Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports and was the 2021 NASCAR champ.

He’ll have another chance to score a sprint car win at Lernerville this September when the High Limit Series comes to the track for the Commonwealth Clash.

“It’s pretty cool to get another win at Lernerville,” Larson said. “This is a track that I really enjoy coming to. I look forward to coming back for the High Limit race later this year. This place was slick tonight. It was fun, technical and hopefully it’s this good when we come back in a couple months.”

In the six times that Larson has raced at Lernerville, he’s never finished worse than second. There was one instance in 2013 where the Silver Cup had twin 30-lap features and a mechanical issue forced a last-place finish in the first feature, but the team made repairs and he went from last to second in the second feature.

On Tuesday, Larson had to track down Kofoid, whom he started beside in the front row for the 30-lap main in the 32nd running of the event. Kofoid got the jump and held Larson at bay for the first 17 laps.

But as the pair started encountering lapped traffic, Larson found his way by Kofoid off Turn 2 and didn’t look back from there.

“I was a bit nervous because if we didn’t catch traffic, I thought (Kofoid) would be hard to beat,” Larson said. “I just tried to stay within reach until we got to traffic. It’s tough to be the leader in those situations. I didn’t know exactly if I was running in the right spot (on the track). I got beside him on the frontstretch and was able to get by him off of two. I was able to build enough momentum at the right time to get by him.”

Brent Marks and Justin Peck made last-lap passes of Kofoid, who finished fourth. Aliquippa native Tim Shaffer rounded out the top five.

Marks was the runner-up behind Larson for the second consecutive year.

“Racing Buddy for as long as I did kind of allowed Kyle to scoot away,” Marks said. “I wish I could’ve passed him sooner and try to run Kyle down to see how my car was compared to his, but I never really had that opportunity.”

Apollo natives AJ Flick and Sye Lynch both went from starting outside transfer spots to second in their respective heat races. Flick started fifth in the third heat and passed Larson, Ryan Smith and Chris Windom to take the runner-up spot. Lynch got by Shaffer, Billy Dietrich and Zeb Wise one heat later.

Flick got as high as ninth in the feature from his 12th-place starting spot but settled for an 11th-place finish. Lynch finished 16th. Butler resident Brandon Spithaler was 17th.

Peck, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Marks, Anthony Macri and Kofoid won the heats. Kofoid won the dash.

Kerry Madsen set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 13.558 seconds.

Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne won the B-Main to advance to the feature.

Kenny Heffner took home the $2,000-to-win Allegheny Sprint Tour 305 feature event.