Larson checks off the achievements in Atlanta

Today at 08:09 AM

Kyle Larson accomplished three things for the first time on Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The first one was checked off the list at the end of the second stage. Larson won the stage, the first time he'd done so on a drafting-style racetrack.

The second accomplishment was making it to the finish. Larson failed to finish in five of his last six races at Atlanta (since it was turned into a drafting track).

On Sunday night, Larson led at the white flag.

And then comes the third accomplishment. A third-place finish, which was Larson's best at Atlanta in its current state.

"It honestly feels great," Larson said. "It'd feel a lot better had we won, but really, to finish a race here and make it to the third stage feels good. And just the battle. It was very entertaining from my seat tonight. So, I had a good time. We were in contention again – like we typically are – we just got to the finish."

Larson went from leading at the white flag to quickly finding himself battling side-by-side with Christopher Bell, who charged to his outside going into Turn 1. In Turn 3, Larson was put three-wide with Bell and Carson Hocevar, who forced himself into the middle. Larson was third at the time of the caution on the final lap.

"I feel like if I would have stayed in the top lane, (Bell) doesn't get to my outside," Larson said. "He probably just pushes me, maybe clear, and gets to the bottom inside of me and clears me. But I don't know. I'll have to study it a little bit more and study it from different angles."

The performance comes a week after Larson was frustrated by what he didn't do in the Daytona 500. Larson does not have a top-five finish in 22 starts at Daytona. He has two top-five finishes in 20 starts at Talladega Superspeedway.

The struggle and frustration reached a point where Jeff Gordon said after last weekend that it seemed to be getting in Larson's head. Sunday, although better, wasn't necessarily a turnaround because Larson acknowledged Atlanta is "totally different" from the other two facilities.

"I wouldn't say it gives me confidence," Larson said. "I do have more confidence when we come here even though this is my first finish, I think, just because handling comes into play and it's not just luck of the lane that you get in necessarily. Where Daytona was a lot (of that) last week. Typically, I feel like I make 50 percent of the time the right lane decision, whereas last week, it was 10 percent of the time the right choice. It just works that way sometimes.

"But even tonight, there were plenty of times where I was like , I just screwed myself. Then I see others that I was just around three laps ago up in the top eight. It just ebbs and flows, and you have to roll with it."

The ability of a driver to control the moves they make and be able to make moves at all also aided Larson's Sunday performance.

"All of us are in more control here," Larson said. "So, it's more fun. Daytona and Talladega suck. Like, they suck."