HAMPTON, Ga. — Twenty-nine times a winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Larson has never won on a superspeedway/drafting track.
He nearly changed that in Sunday’s (Feb. 23) Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
As the field rolled through turns 3 and 4 coming to the line in overtime, Larson led on the inside line, only to have Christopher Bell inch into the lead with Carson Hocevar joining in to make it a three-way race for the lead. A crash behind the leaders drew a caution, and Bell was declared the winner. Hocevar finished second, and Larson was credited with a third-place finish.
“It feels great,” Larson said after the race. “It’d feel a lot better having won, but to finish a race here, and make it through the third stage, it feels good.”
Sunday’s race ending under caution came after as fans continue growing frustration about whether or not race control officials should wave the caution flag on the final lap following on-track incidents.
Counting Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway, four of the last six races across the Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series have ended under caution. After the Xfinity race the night before raced back to the line despite a last lap crash, race officials did not take the same approach in the Cup race.
Even though it may have cost Larson a potential race win, he took no issue with the way Sunday night ended.
“I think they probably made the right decision tonight,” Larson said. “I think the last couple weeks … [were] a bit extreme, they probably made the right decision.”
Some drivers have won races in a number of ways. Larson may feel a twinge of let down coming up shy of a win that was within sight coming to the white flag.
But not when you consider the ill-fated luck that has haunted Larson on superspeedways. Regardless of the month of the year that races at Atlanta, Talladega Superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway have been held in the Cup Series, each of them have been a haunted house of horrors for Larson.
Coming into Sunday, Larson failed to finish four Atlanta races in a row, placed worse than 20th three out of the past four races in Daytona, and finished outside the top 15 twice and crashing out once at Talladega
Sunday afternoon ended up being a bit different.
Starting 17th, Larson would go on to win the second stage in a race in which he led four times for 12 laps.
“It was very entertaining from my seat tonight,” Larson said. “I had a good time. We were in contention again, like we typically are.”
The icing on the cake for Larson was not just running well on a superspeedway, but being around to race for the win at the finish, even if he didn’t celebrate in victory lane.
“Obviously, the [No.] 20 got to my outside and initially I was like, ‘oh f*ck,'” Larson said. “Then, I was able to just get down and get a hit from the [No.] 77, which kept me side-by-side with [Bell]. I feel like if I had stayed in the top lane and [No.] 20 doesn’t get to my outside, he probably just pushes me clear and gets to the bottom inside of me.”
While getting a result such as Sunday’s result likely played a role, Larson did get more enjoyment from the style of Atlanta’s layout compared to Daytona and Talladega.
“It’s not like Daytona and Talladega where it’s just a choo-choo train and three-wide,” Larson said. “Here, it’s like, people’s cars handle bad, there’s accordions, there’s gaps, you can plug holes.
“So it’s much more strategic in the driver’s seat to get to the front. I mean, it’s just intense. … Laps are going faster, it’s a smaller track. So yeah, that was fun.”
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.