Kyle Larson remains hot with runner-up finish at Talladega

LINCOLN, Ala- For hating superspeedway racing, Kyle Larson seems to have found a groove at the high banks, coming home second at Talladega Sunday. 

Coming off his win at Bristol two weeks ago, Larson came into Talladega expecting something to go wrong like in years past, but wound up racing for the win at the conclusion of Sunday’s race, reminiscent of Atlanta where he finished third. 

“I feel like we’ve always performed pretty decent at least at Hendrick,” Larson said. “Was happy about the day, it was great from top to bottom. We had another shot to potentially win at the end so that was good.” 

Larson found himself behind eventual race winner Austin Cindric on the final lap, but was unable to make any moves to give himself a shot to race for the win coming to the line. It was an unusually clean closing laps at the end of Sunday’s race, but that’s how Larson would prefer it went. 

“I was trying to push him as hard as I can to maybe get us both clear out in front of the 60 so then I can get to the front row,” Larson said. “But there at the end we’re all pushing really hard and pushing further down the straightaway. You’re trying to do all you can to win without crashing the front row, I could have easily crashed the front row but that’s not anything you wanna see at the end of these races.” 

When the field was running full throttle and not fuel saving, passing became more difficult. While the ending of the race was ran at full throttle, it made passing and contending for the lead very difficult. During the fuel saving stretches in the race, Larson felt he could pick his way through the field easier. 

“Very difficult to pass,” Larson said. “I started the race in the back and couldn’t go anywhere. Some things got jumbled up. You need moments like that where the field can get choked up and fanned out and you can get lucky and pick your way through.”  

Many different games were being played among the field on Sunday, including an interesting observation Larson made from behind the wheel regarding Toyota’s strategy throughout the race. 

“It seemed like the Toyotas had a strategy, it seemed to get to the lead on the bottom lane then bring the pace up so that kept us all from being three or four wide,” Larson said. “I feel like at that point it migrates back to what it used to be early last year and before that where you’re still saving back there but you’re not jammed up as much.” 

Larson is on quite a roll as of late, finishing only outside the top 10 three times so far this season. After finishing 20th at Daytona and 32nd at COTA, Larson has finished top-10 in every race since except for Darlington. Now, with multiple 1.5 mile tracks coming up, his chances to continue that trend are very strong.