Kyle Larson has celebrated his third Chili Bowls Nationals win after a chaotic race for the NASCAR star.
The 2021 Cup Series champion went level with Christopher Bell, as he became a three-time champion in the annual event on the midget car racing schedule.
Whilst Larson led every lap of the main event, the 32-year-old’s race was nearly over after a number of close incidents.
Larson encountered the stalled car of Jacob Denney amid traffic where he made contact, but was luckily able to restart his car in time to keep his lead.
Larson discusses chaotic Chili Bowl Nationals win
However this was not the only incident for Larson during the race, after he then made contact with the wall.
The NASCAR champion was fortunately presented with a caution flag caused by an unrelated dislodged banner, which allowed him to maintain his position in the lead.
"I made a mistake on the frontstretch and was kind of up on top of the wall and it shot me off of it,” Larson said after the race.
"I thought I was going to flip similar to how I did last year. I didn't know it at the time, but it had ripped the banner down. I thought they threw the caution for me.
"Before I got back around to the other side I was like, 'Man, I don't know how they're going to score this.'
"If they were going to have me as the cause of the caution, if I would get penalized or anything. But I saw the banner laying there and I was like, 'OK, well that's good. Maybe I'll keep my spot.'"
Despite these incidents, Larson celebrated his third win and discussed the challenging conditions out on track.
"All three (Chili Bowl wins) are different,” he added.
"The first one was just a big hurdle to get over mentally I feel like to get a win in here finally. Then the next year meant a lot because we didn't have the best car that race but we played defense really well.
"Tonight, the track was challenging to make a lap by yourself, so when you can win a 40-lap race on a track that challenging, it's pretty cool."