After the week, in fact the season, he’s had, Kyle Larson was just grateful to finish somewhere other than the garage Monday at Dover.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver came to Dover had only two top-10 finishes to show through 10 races. Three races included crashes including a much-publicized wreck at Talladega a week prior that sent his Chevy tumbling on the final lap.
Monday, Larson started third and was in the mix all day.
“Oh, yeah, we ran inside the Top 5 all race long,” Larson said. “We fought tight early-on, with our Credit One Bank Chevy, but we freed it up and got it to where I felt like I was pretty good.”
He wasn’t able to contend for the win in the closing laps.
“In the last run there, after cycling through green-flag stops, I was really loose and got stuck in traffic and then was just looser in the dirty air,” Larson said. “So, I had to just make sure I hit the bottom lap after lap to hold (Kevin) Harvick off.”
Perhaps the best news for Larson was that he stayed out of trouble running a clean race and finished third.
“It was good to finally have a clean race,” Larson said. “I don’t think we’ve had a clean weekend all year long. And we’re 11 weeks into the season. So, it’s good to finally get a clean day, like I said, and thanks to our race team. Our pit crew did a good job today as well. It was a nice day.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" 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, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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