NASCAR driver Kyle Larson completely lost it following his first-place finish at the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, Oct. 25.

Reflecting on his first win at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Ala., Larson, 34, tells PEOPLE he was so caught up in the moment after crossing the finish line that he didn’t hear his team tell him over the radio that he’d won.

“I know I was going crazy, you know, coming to the [finish] line,” said Larson, who drives the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. “I was like fist pumping and already kind of screaming in my helmet.”

It was a dramatic finish Sunday, with a multi-car wreck causing substantial damage to the No. 22 Team Penske Ford driven by Joey Logano. The late-race fiasco shuffled up the drivers and sent the event into red-flag overtime. 

Larson, who had been running outside the top ten, strategically overtook his opponents by linking with NASCAR driver Ross Chastain for a push and taking a chance on an opening along the bottom lane. 

“That’s just the craziness of the endings of these races,” Larson recalled of the final lap.

Although Larson was behind the wheel, pit crew chief Cliff Daniels helped navigate the path to victory.

“One of the biggest decisions for us was, you know, staying out to try to get the stage points and the stage win at the end of stage two,” Daniels said. “Then when we pitted, we got [the car] full of fuel knowing that if [the race] went to a green-white checkered finish, we’d have enough to the end.”

Larson took advantage of turn four, the final corner before the finish line, and passed seven cars in the last quarter mile. Daniels — who has worked in NASCAR for over 15 years — commended Larson for maintaining his composure during an intense final lap.

“On his end, when things didn’t work out on the white flag lap coming off of turn two, we got shuffled out, he maintained his composure,” Daniels said. “He figured out how to get hooked up with a couple other guys and get a run.”

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Daniels continued, “He had a really good run coming off of turn four that brought him home.”

Larson’s win at the YellaWood 500 — presented by Straight Talk Wireless in partnership with NASCAR — earned him 71 points in the Cup Series, the sport’s top-level racing division. 

He will next turn his attention to the Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Va., where he’ll race in the Xfinity 500 on Sunday, Nov. 1, the final cutoff race in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase.

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