Walks in the park on Saturday evenings aren’t uncommon for Kyle Larson. The 32-year-old Elk Grove native & 2021 Cup Series champion has 16 Xfinity Series wins, but if some of those were walks in the park; Today was a track meet.

Piloting the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, Larson captured the pole for the event early Saturday afternoon with ease. From there, it was his for the taking as the green flag dropped.

However, the race win wasn’t just for Larson and company, it was for the late Jon Edwards. The long-time Communications Director for Hendrick Motorsports and the #5 team passed away this past week, much to the heartache of the entire NASCAR garage, from ARCA to Cup. Many members of the garage are sporting a sticker on the post of their cars in commemoration of Edwards.

“Cool to get a win this weekend for Jon and everyone who’s been a part of his life. We got one more tomorrow, would be nothing better than to cap it off with a Cup win,” said Larson.

Larson dominated the first stage right off of the bat, utilizing his rocketship of a Chevrolet to dart out to the lead and hold it. The only car who seemed to have anything for Larson all day was the #7 of Justin Allgaier, but it wasn’t much.

Things wouldn’t change up until lap 67, when Sheldon Creed spun out and sat at the top of the track, seconds before Brennan Poole slammed into him head on, sending hundreds of pieces of both cars, as well as a tire, flying across the short track. The wreck brought out the red flag, pausing the action.

With the incident taking two Dash 4 Cash contenders out, it was down to two drivers before the end of stage one, Justin Allgaier and Austin Hill.

With stage points useless for Larson, the 17 team pitted before the stage ended, leaving Sam Mayer the proprietor of the lead. Mayer held it down and won stage one.

By lap 143 in stage two, Larson had extended his lead over second place Allgaier by five seconds, the most of the race. Larson lapped the field up to 12th place before winning stage two with ease.

The third and final stage saw Justin Allgaier take the lead for the first time all day, nabbing it from the dominant Larson. It wouldn’t be long until Larson gave Allgaier a classic short track shove up the track, commanding the lead back.

Throughout the final stage, Jr. Motorsports continued their day of excellence, with rookie Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier and Sammy Smith all fighting for second through fourth. The civil war between drivers would be for the win, had it not been for Larson’s continued dominance.

A small Mason Massey spin racked the cars up again, but it wouldn’t matter much. Larson wasted zero time assuming the lead once again. As the other Chevrolets battled behind the Cup veteran, Larson rode his hot rod all the way to victory lane for his 16th Xfinity Series career win.

Justin Allgaier would finish runner up, winning the Dash 4 Cash & with it $100,000. The check makes Lil Gator’s total sum of D4C earnings $700,000, the most in series history.

The performance for Larson and company comes after he failed to capture victory in friday night’s truck race, placing second behind Chandler Smith.

Despite the failed attempt at a weekend sweep, all of Hendrick is happy to find victory lane after such a week that held much weight.

The Xfinity Series will return April 19 for the long awaited return to The Rock, aka Rockingham Speedway. The green flag drops at 1:00 PM PST.