LONG POND - What began as a laugher turned into a nail biter for Kyle Larson.
After starting on the pole and dominating most of the race, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie had to outduel ARCA Series regular Mason Mitchell over the closing laps to win the Pocono 200 on Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
Although he led 66-of-80 laps, Larson needed to pass Mitchell for the lead with three laps to go to add his name to the list of Sprint Cup drivers who have won this race while gaining additional seat time at Pocono.
"I was glad I got to work really hard there at the end because I learned some things in traffic," said Larson, who will compete in today's Pocono 400 and start 14th. "These (ARCA) cars handle so differently and drive so differently (than Cup cars), it's hard to learn a lot. But making more track time helps."
John Wes Townley finished third. Will Kimmel was fourth and Justin Allison, grandson of NASCAR legend Donnie Allison, was fifth.
Nick Igdalsky, Pocono Raceway executive vice president and chief operating officer, ran as high as fifth late until suffering a blown engine with six laps remaining. He finished 18th.
Just how far ahead was Larson? On Lap 54, he was penalized following a pit stop for violating the blend rule. When exiting the pits, a driver must keep his car's four tires below the yellow line until the line stops in Turn 1. Then the driver can move up the race track.
Larson didn't do that, and had to serve a pass-through penalty down pit road. But all that did was reduce his lead from 28 seconds to 21 seconds.
Things started to get interesting on Lap 60 when the caution came out for debris on the track. On the Lap-66 restart, the cars of Matt Tifft and Justin Boston spun in Turn 1, bringing out the yellow flag again.
On Lap 72, Mitchell was able to get a great restart and pull ahead of Larson.
"I went into the corner as hard as I could, out-braked him, got the lead and pulled away a little bit," Mitchell said. "But the car just kept getting tighter and tighter. It's something we were fighting all weekend. It was unfortunate."
Mitchell led until Lap 77 when Larson was able to reclaim the lead for good with a pass heading into Turn 3. He made it to the checkered flag 1.153 seconds ahead of Mitchell.
"I was really surprised on that last restart. He was able to get the jump on me and pull away," Larson said. "But we caught a little bit of traffic and it seems to upset him in Turn 2. He overdrove the corner a little bit and I was able to get a run on him."
For Mitchell, it was his second runner-up finish of the season - he also was second at Toledo on May 18 - and fourth in 31 ARCA races. Although denied his first career victory, he was far from disappointed.
"I couldn't be more proud of my guys for stepping up and competing against a team of that caliber," said Mitchell, who is second in the ARCA standings, 20 points behind leader Grant Enfinger. "When we can go out there, lead laps and pass him and give him a run for his money, I think it shows what we can do."
Certainly, Larson has shown this season what he can do. He added Saturday's ARCA win to a pair of Nationwide Series victories. He ranks 10th in the Sprint Cup Series standings with his best finish being second at Fontana, Calif.
He admitted losing Saturday would have been tough, given how much he dominated. But Larson said he enjoyed the end of the race more than he did the beginning when he was leading by so much.
"It's nice being the guy 30 seconds ahead," Larson said. "But it's always fun when you get to battle hard with somebody.."