Kyle Larson arguably had the fastest car at Iowa Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday (June 16), but he had nothing but a 34th-place finish to show for it, as his day ended early in the final stage after a crash while racing three-wide against Brad Keselowski and Daniel Suarez.
Larson got held up by Keselowski on the backstretch during a restart, so he dove to the middle in turn 3 in an effort to get by. Suarez, running on the inside, then washed up the track and into the No. 5 car, which sent Larson spinning into Denny Hamlin and the outside wall.
After the race, Larson admitted that he probably could have handled the situation better than he did.
“I guess I could’ve not gone to the middle and been more patient, knowing how fast my car was and knowing who I was [racing] around,” he said. “But I wanted to get as many cars as I could at the beginning of the run, and it probably ended up biting me.”
Don’t get me wrong, the incident wasn’t Larson’s fault at all; Suarez lost control of his car and got into him. But drivers make their own luck, and I feel that Iowa was another example of Larson biting off more than he could chew.
While many accidents are freak … well, accidents, some drivers put themselves more in harm’s way than others. By voluntarily running three-wide in the middle in an effort to pass both, Larson placed his car in a pickle. Most of the time, that move works with no problem. But Larson put himself at greater risk if Suarez was to have a problem, and in this moment, he did.
Larson, along with Ryan Blaney, was the class of the field at Iowa. And as Larson said himself post-race, he was fast enough that he could’ve picked off Keselowski and Suarez one by one in a couple laps had he exercised more patience. But Larson is the driver to take those risks, and while those aggressive moves make him the dominant and flashy driver he is, they also cost him more than his peers.
For another example, Larson was running second behind Blaney at Homestead-Miami Speedway last October. The No. 5 was once again the class of the field, and as the two made their way toward pit road under green for their final service of the day, Larson tried to make up all the time he could on pit entry. So much time that he lost control, crashed into the sand barriers and ended his day on the spot.
Those are just a few moments in a long list of races have backfired for Larson. Could he benefit from toning it down just a little?
There may be races like Homestead last year and Iowa last weekend where Larson could’ve won or scored a top-five finish at minimum if he had exercised more patience, but for all we know, a less-aggressive Larson could be nowhere close to the dominant driver we see taking those risks week in and week out.
And if there was ever a time to be aggressive and take more risks, it’s now. Larson has three wins and leads the series with 754 laps led, and he’s scored enough stage points and stage wins that he’s only eight points out of the regular season points lead despite missing a race and sporting an average finish four spots worse than leader Chase Elliott.
That’s not even mentioning all the stage wins that he’s racked up. He’ll easily enter the playoffs with the most playoff points, even if he doesn’t win the regular season championship. And for a driver of his caliber, taking more of those risks, even if they backfire from time to time like at Iowa, will keep putting himself in position to win more races and score more playoff points — the two things that matter the most in NASCAR’s current format.
2. Iowa is back, and it more than delivered. What other tracks are ready for a NASCAR return?
After a five-year hiatus from NASCAR’s national touring series, Iowa succeeded with an excellent weekend of racing in its return, even when there were concerns surrounding tires and its partial repave.
Iowa became the third oval to make its Cup debut since 2021, joining Nashville Superspeedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. North Wilkesboro Speedway has also found a home as the All-Star Race after a 20-plus-year abandonment, and the Circuit of the Americas road course has also become a popular mainstay on the schedule after making its debut in ’21. NASCAR has only continued to expand its horizons since, and the first-ever street race in Chicago will be returning for a second consecutive year in just a few weeks’ time.
Variety is the spice of life, and it would only be beneficial for NASCAR to expand to new markets or return to former markets that are lacking a race. Of all the tracks that have the infrastructure, facilities and market to host a Cup race, which ones are currently off the schedule?
Kentucky Speedway & Chicagoland Speedway
The two Midwest tracks were taken off the schedule in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they would be great hosts given how well the Next Gen car has raced on 1.5-mile ovals. But both tracks come with caveats; Chicagoland will likely be shelved for as long as the Chicago street race is on the schedule, and while there are plenty of politicians in Kentucky that want to see the track return, it currently faces hurdles in funding to get there.
Road America
Road America held two Cup races in 2021 and 2022, and it still got the short end of the stick with its removal from the Cup schedule, even though fans packed the place solid. Now absent from the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule as well, it would be a boon for NASCAR if it could return to one of the most famous road courses in the country.
Rockingham Speedway
North Wilkesboro made its triumphant return to Cup, and Rockingham has undergone a facelift with a new repave and upgrades to its facilities. If one historic fan favorite was able to make a return, I wouldn’t count out lightning striking twice.
Auto Club Speedway
The future of the facility and its proposed short track are still in question, but Auto Club would be perfect for a return if the short track is ultimately built. Southern California is the second-largest media market in the United States, and NASCAR won’t want to be away from SoCal for long.
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez & Circuit Gilles Villenueve
With NASCAR starting to focus on international expansion, Mexico and Canada are the perfect places to start. Both tracks have been on the Xfinity schedule in the past, and with all the rumors surrounding both Mexico and Canada, it seems to be not a matter of if, but rather when these two are added to the Cup schedule for the first time.
3. Would Sheldon Creed benefit from more starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series?
After an ugly, ugly exit from Richard Childress Racing at the end of 2023, a full-time Xfinity ride with Joe Gibbs Racing marked the perfect opportunity for Sheldon Creed to reset after two years of falling just short of a win.
JGR has won five of the 15 Xfinity races this season between four different drivers (Chandler Smith twice, John Hunter Nemechek, Aric Almirola and Ryan Truex), but Creed is still looking to break through with nearly half the season complete. He did score runner-up finishes at Daytona International Speedway and Sonoma Raceway, but he is now up to nine runner-up finishes and 85 starts in Xfinity without a win.
In the most recent race at Iowa, Creed was running top five in the closing laps with a chance to win once again. But he made a costly error while running second with just over 10 to go, as he tried to clear himself up high in front of Nemechek out of turn 4 when he was, in fact, not clear. The two teammates then made contact and lost a ton of spots; Nemechek crashed a few laps later with tire damage.
After the race, Creed said that he gave Nemechek “the option” to either lift or try a crossover. But Nemechek never yielded, which resulted in the collision.
Let’s be clear: A driver should never expect another driver, let alone a teammate, to just surrender second place when there are only a handful of laps remaining. No one will throw in the towel like that, especially when drivers like Nemechek are only racing for trophies instead of points.
It’s become a frequent occurrence for Creed to make some sort of ill-advised move when he has a chance to win (see last year’s finish at Martinsville Speedway). And it’s the second race in a row where he’s made such an error, as he locked up the brakes and spun AJ Allmendinger while running in the top five at Sonoma.
Creed clearly has the talent and speed to win, but all those close calls are quickly adding up. And if he goes winless in Xfinity for the third year in a row, it won’t be a good look — especially when Jesse Love, his replacement at RCR, already has a win and is tied with Creed in points at just 19 years old.
On the other hand, Creed has eight Truck wins and the 2020 title under his belt, and he had plenty of dominant outings against the competition during his Truck tenure. The trucks and Xfinity cars require completely different driving styles, and so far, it looks like Creed hasn’t been able to adapt to the Xfinity cars as well as the trucks.
If anything, Creed would benefit from dabbling with part-time starts in the Truck Series, especially with a powerhouse Toyota team like TRICON Garage. He can clearly wheel a truck to wins and championships, and a victory or two in trucks might help his confidence and performance on the Xfinity side after so many near misses.
4. How will the Haas Factory Team impact charter negotiations for teams looking to expand?
When it was announced that Stewart-Haas Racing would close its doors at the end of the season, many assumed that all four of its charters would be up for grabs.
Well, make it three.
In a surprising twist, it was announced June 20 that SHR co-owner Gene Haas will stay in NASCAR, run a two-car Xfinity team and retain one of SHR’s Cup charters.
Front Row Motorsports had purchased one of SHR’s charters earlier this month, which means that only two charters are left on the market. And with teams like Trackhouse Racing, 23XI Racing, RCR and RFK Racing in the mix for expansion, the dwindling number of charters will be far more expensive than they were before today’s news.
Case in point, Spire Motorsports purchased a charter from Live Fast Motorsports for $40 million last season. Meanwhile, FRM reportedly paid just $20-25 million to purchase one from SHR. The market price had gone down when there were four up for grabs, but now that there are only two, some of the teams that looked to be in a good spot to purchase one will now be on the outside looking in.
It’s unknown what the new market price for a charter will be, but there’s still a Pandora’s box of questions that have yet to be answered. The charter system has yet to be renewed long term, and that will keep asking prices down in the interim. Furthermore, SHR may not be the only avenue to acquire a charter this season. If a team like Kaulig Racing were to sell a charter or merge with Trackhouse (both have been in the rumor mill for quite some time), that would open up more options and shrink the market price for the remaining teams that are looking to expand.
And while it’s wishful thinking, there may be enough demand for NASCAR to expand the charter system beyond the current 36 entries. But if such a scenario were to happen, it probably wouldn’t occur for several years.
For now, it’s only June, and there are still plenty of months for the charter negotiations and purchases to get sorted out. But for all the teams out there that were looking to add another car to their lineup, the announcement of Haas’ one-car team just made that dream all the more difficult.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
Wow! Lots to digest.
I’ll take Larsons style , rather pull the horse back than try to get them to go. Racing is not exact science, so things go sideways, you react and keep charging. It’s what makes racing so “ real” and why we keep watching.
Get back to Road America! Take away the STUPID Roval, for the love of Pete!
Sheldon seems to be having a cruddy year, any more time behind the wheel might be a good thing ..until it isn’t.
So now more drama with SHR! Or HR? Get Cole Custer into Cup, please. He deserves it more than some of the ones currently there now. Not another year in Xfinity.