Kyle Larson scores best career superspeedway finish at Atlanta
Today at 08:43 PM
One of Kyle Larson‘s greatest challenges since entering the Cup Series over a decade ago has always been taming superspeedway racing. It‘s a craft that he‘s focused on improving, understanding the results must flip.
Entering the second superspeedway race in as many weeks to start the 2025 campaign, Larson was winless in 48 career starts in the draft. He had two top-five finishes total, both coming at Talladega Superspeedway. His average finish in 22 starts at Daytona International Speedway and 20 starts at Talladega Superspeedway is the exact same: 21.9.
Then, there’s Atlanta Motor Speedway, a hybrid intermediate track with fundamentals that entail superspeedway racing. Larson had DNFs in five of the previous six Atlanta drafting races entering the weekend, with an implausible 29.8 average finish.
During last week‘s Daytona 500, Larson felt each move that he made in the draft was incorrect. Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, noticed.
"I think now I’m starting to see it’s getting in his head," Gordon said following the Daytona 500. "I’ve had a few conversations with him, and am like, 'Man, just go for it, just forget about it; don’t try to even overthink it.’
"I don’t know what advice to give him other than — all I told him today is just be Kyle Larson. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Don’t look at what somebody else is doing that’s having success. Just go out there and execute, and the other things will turn around and come your way eventually.”
Seven days later, Larson put together his best superspeedway race to date from start to finish at Atlanta.
During a dominant Stage 1 performance by Ford, Larson made no improvement from his 17th-place starting position. Stage 2 was a different story, however, as Larson scored his first stage victory at a superspeedway.
As positions jockeyed throughout the final stage, Larson was consistently hovering around the top five. And in the closing laps, the No. 5 Chevrolet found itself in position to potentially score that coveted first superspeedway victory.
It wasn‘t a flawless performance. With three laps remaining in regular, Larson pinched Austin Cindric into the wall while battling for the race lead. Cindric ricocheted off the Turn 2 wall, collecting Daytona 500 champion William Byron.
"I got put in the wall, wrecked and didn‘t win," Cindric told a group of reporters at the infield care center. "Not clear. I don‘t know what information he‘s getting, but my car was on his outside. It definitely merits a conversation."
Larson took ownership of the incident.
"[Cindric] got there a little bit quicker than I thought he would," Larson said. "I thought he was going to pick me up on the exit of [Turn] 2. Yeah, that was probably my fault. I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m sure that was my fault.”
Larson began overtime as the race leader. When the field took the white flag, the No. 5 car remained out front. Entering Turn 1, Christopher Bell moved to the outside and cleared Larson. Josh Berry got turned down the backstretch, triggering the caution. Larson dropped to third, scored behind Bell and Carson Hocevar, who earned a career best runner-up results.
The third-place finish is Larson‘s personal best in 49 superspeedway attempts.
"I don’t know what I did wrong or right," Larson said of dropping to third on the final lap. "I thought maybe [Bell] picked me up. He was just going to push me and get clear of me into one anyway.
"I think it kind of worked out OK. Then, just didn’t get the caution to come out late enough until I got the run back to the inside. Came up a little bit short, but proud of the effort today by everybody on our HendrickCars.com Chevy. Finally finished at Atlanta and finally got to run up front."
By leading 12 laps, Larson went to school at the front of the field at Atlanta. It‘s his first finish inside the top 30 at AMS in the last five races.
"It was super intense," Larson added of the racing. "It was my first legit finish here at Atlanta since the reconfiguration, so I‘ll take it. I feel like we learned a lot and I feel like we can be a lot better with the balance of our race car to be a little bit more on offense while we are in traffic. We just came up a little bit short.
"It‘s been a good night, just wish we could have been a couple spots better."
With a pair of superspeedways in the rear view to kick start 2025, the schedule will begin to favor Larson. He has a runner-up finish in four starts at Circuit of The Americas, but is a six-time winner on road courses.
