VADO, N.M. — Kyle Larson has yet to win a feature race during the Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout, but the NASCAR star from Elk Grove, Calif., has been exciting to watch nonetheless. Larson has been one of the most consistent drivers through the first four races of the six-race miniseries at at Vado Speedway Park, registering finishes of fifth, second, sixth and fourth.

While his runner-up finish to Blairsville, Ga.’s Jonathan Davenport, who won the first three Wild West Shootout features this year, could very well be among the year’s best races by season’s end, Larson’s dazzling run from 20th to fourth in Friday’s 30-lap feature won by Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., may be Larson’s most impressive work at Vado to date.

Larson ran into trouble during his heat race while battling Pierce for the lead. When the two frontrunners caught the slower car of Trenton Jessen, Pierce couldn’t avoid contact with Jessen, who then turned sideways, leaving Larson no place to go. Larson hit Jessen, sending Jessen’s car into a slowish rollover. Neither driver was injured, but it cost Larson a runner-up spot to Pierce in the sixth heat and forced the Kevin Rumley-owned team into hurry-up mode to make repairs. Larson then rallied from 12th to win the second consolation race and transferred to the main event.

“Thankfully there wasn’t too much damage. I think it was just a little cosmetic and then the radiator. So it wasn’t too bad,” Larson said. “I felt like we’d get out there (for the consolation race) in time. There was a lot of B-mains ahead of ours, but seeing where I started 12th and only taking three (to the feature) I was nervous about that. I thought maybe it would be close for me to get to third. But I was able to get a really good start and then get some cautions and some OK restarts to win that. Which, every position in the B is a row in the feature, so once I got to sniff the lead I wanted to win the B just to help my main event out.”

Lining up on the outside of the 10th row to the start the feature, it didn’t take long for Larson to get rolling. He turned the third-fastest lap of the feature — behind only Davenport and Pierce — on lap six. He said it was important to they to get by as many cars as he could in the early going.

“When you start in the back if you don’t pick off a handful of cars early, you’re probably going to get stuck back there,” he said. “I did get stuck early but then I put together, laps probably five through eight were really good and passed a handful of cars and I think in that first caution I was 12th or so. So 20th to 12th in however many laps that was I thought was OK. The car was really good there and in the feature I was able to drive from the back to the front. Kind of got stuck there for four laps or so and then was able to get rolling. Ran the bottom OK too, so I was really happy with that. Really solid night.”

Larson said Friday’s finish was among the peaks to a week filled with an equal amount of valleys.

“It’s just been up and down. Every other night has been good and the next is bad,” Larson said. “You know the first night I thought we were average. We went backwards early and then we were able to come to fifth or something like that. The second night we changed some stuff and I was like OK, we’re really good, we hit on something. And then I was excited about the third night and was really bad the third night, so … Then tonight we went back on some things and we were really good again. I don’t want to get my hopes up because it seems like every other night in a Late Model is something different for me. Really just at this point trying to work on myself, trying to figure out how to drive these things a little bit better.”

While Larson worked a little bit on his driving style Friday, he also talked on the phone for a while with fellow Longhorn driver Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga.

“I definitely changed some things behind the wheel tonight and I felt like I felt some gains, but doing it a second night will really tell if I really did learn anything,” Larson said. “So I’m really just trying to study as much as I can. It’s frustrating not feeling like I can go win. Obviously I’m in a really good car. When you have to look at yourself in the mirror a little bit it gets really frustrating. But I got a good group, a lot of people I can lean on. I talked to Brandon Overton for a long time this morning and he really helped, so it’s good to have a friend like that who can help.”

Sorensen’s small steps

Rochester, Minn.’s Dustin Sorensen has made all four features during this year’s Wild West Shootout, but it hasn’t been easy. The first three nights Sorensen, the 2022 United States Modified Touring Series champ, had to advance to the main event through the consolation race. Finally, Sorensen, who has taken the reigns of the MB Customs house car from Jimmy Mars, who retired at the end of last season, had a solid prelim, winning his heat and earning the sixth starting spot in the feature via the redraw. The 22-year-old finished 17th in the main event, but it was still a step in the right direction.

“We got a good qualifying lap in and got to start on the front row of the heat which was huge and then we got that heat win,” Sorensens said. “We redrew a six, which was unfortunate, but we had a good car there in the feature. We ended up getting a flat coming to the white (flag) but yeah, it was good to see improvement and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.”

Sorensen said the team has been tweaking in the car’s setup all week and it showed on Friday.

“We’ve been changing stuff all week just to get the car where I’m comfortable in it and also me getting better and more comfortable in a Late Model,” he said. “You can drive these so much harder than a mod, so (I am) just figuring out that limit that you can push them to and being on the edge.”

Stakes rise for Pierce

For the second time in four races, retired Hall of Fame driver Bob Pierce, father, crew chief and signaller for Friday winner Bobby Pierce, watched as his son sailed around the 3/8-mile Vado oval seemingly with reckless abandon.

After the younger Pierce came up just short on Wednesday, the elder Pierce said his son likely had his foot all the way through the floorboard while trying to catch eventual winner Jonathan Davenport. After Friday’s race, during which Bobby drove equally as hard, the Tall Cool One, was already looking toward the end of the 17th annual Wild West Shootout.

“Tonight (which paid $10,000-to-win) was good,” said Bob, before cracking a wry grin and adding, “Sunday (which pays $25,000-to-win) would be even better.”