Kyle Larson has discovered that sometimes the NASCAR rule book is a wonderful thing.
Other times, it is a large metal object with which NASCAR hits you directly in the forehead.
At Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, Larson got the pleasant version.
Rain washed out Cup Series practice and qualifying, meaning NASCAR had to reach into its rule book to determine Saturday night’s starting lineup.
And because Larson won last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway, he gets to start the Bristol Night Race from the pole.
Joey Logano will start alongside him, with Chase drivers Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Carson Hocevar completing the top five.
For Larson, this is rather better than what happened at Darlington.
After Daytona, the metric used to set the starting lineup had worked against him at Darlington. This time, it has worked spectacularly well.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Larson said when asked if this was a case of living by the sword and dying by the sword. “I mean, it’s better to be off on this side of it than the other.”
That is one way of putting it.
Another would be: NASCAR finally gave Larson the good end of the stick.
The pole is particularly useful at Bristol because track position can be pretty valuable when the cars begin disappearing into one another at the half-mile bullring.
Larson knows he can work his way through the field at Bristol. He has done it before. But starting at the front means he doesn’t have to spend the opening stage demonstrating that particular party trick.
“I would rather start up front than not,” he said.
There is, however, one tiny problem.
Larson hasn’t actually driven the car.
Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions were washed away, leaving teams to head into one of NASCAR’s most notoriously difficult races without turning a competitive lap.
Larson isn’t exactly losing sleep over it.
“I mean, again, yeah, I would rather practice than not, but I’m also okay if we aren’t able to get out there to practice,” he said.
That confidence comes partly from simulator work and partly from the fact that Larson believes Hendrick Motorsports has its Bristol package in a reasonably useful place.
He also understands something important about Bristol.
“It’s Bristol,” Larson said. “It’s a fun place and you just really got to go out there and race no matter how your car is.”
Which is reassuring, because Saturday night could involve rather more racing than setup sheets.
Larson arrives at Bristol with something he didn’t have when the Chase began: genuine momentum.
He entered the playoffs without much confidence, then finished strong at Darlington before winning at Gateway to end a 51-race Cup Series winless drought.
The result has been a rather significant change in his championship outlook.
Larson is now just nine points behind Hamlin, who enters Bristol as the Chase points leader after winning the regular season.
“I think I was open before we even went to Darlington that I wasn’t like the most confident,” Larson said. “But yeah, we’ve started the Chase off way better than I anticipated.”
That is probably the understatement of the weekend.
Larson expected to have decent races. He didn’t necessarily expect to win one.
Now he’s starting the third Chase race from the pole while sitting nine points behind the driver he considers the fastest combination in the series.
And yes, Larson admits Hamlin, the stop seed in the Chase when it began and still on top, is probably still the man to beat.
“They’ve been the fastest car, team and driver, consistently, throughout the year,” Larson said.
But Larson isn’t particularly interested in turning the championship into a two-man grudge match.
“If I’m battling him these next few weeks, it means we’re probably battling him towards the front, which is a good thing,” he said.
That is Larson’s version of optimism.
He also isn’t pretending the No. 5 Chevrolet has suddenly become unbeatable. The team is executing better, preparing better and doing the things required to contend for wins again, but Larson believes there is still plenty of room to improve.
“We still have room to go, for sure, a lot of room to go, to be dominant,” he said.
That’s probably not what the rest of the Chase field wants to hear.
Larson’s team has already regained its swagger. Now it has a pole at Bristol without having to turn a wheel to earn it.
There are still seven races after Saturday night…still plenty of opportunities for something to go horribly wrong, because this is NASCAR and apparently peace was never an option.
But for the moment, things are going Larson’s way.
The metric that once bit him has now handed him the pole.
And Larson isn’t about to complain.
Not about this one, anyway.
STARTING LINEUP
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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