By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Kyle Larson hasn’t had the results he’s hoped for in 2019. With no points paying wins on the season to this point and only 1 top-five to go along with 4 top-ten finishes, Larson is hoping his luck turns around when the series heads to the Irish Hills of Michigan International Speedway this weekend.
The 26-year old is seeking the victory that would secure his spot in this season’s playoffs. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver hasn’t visited victory lane (points paying) since the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway in 2017 where he captured his fourth win that season.
MIS could very well be the track that Larson gets the monkey off his back. Three of his five victories in NASCAR’s premiere series have come at MIS, including three in a row from 2016 to 2017.
That is, if Larson can avoid the disappointing finishes he’s had there in the last year. Last season, Larson found himself finishing 28th and 17th. Qualifying proved to not be much better for the driver with starts of 26th and 17th, respectively.
For a driver that was dominating the circuit in 2017, this season’s results have been alarming both in qualifying and when the checkered flag has flown in the first fourteen races of the season.
Larson’s average start through Pocono last weekend is 15.7 with an average finish of 18.3 with an astounding 4 DNF’s which ties his DNF total through all of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
What’s it going to take for Larson and his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet team to get back to their dominating ways? The speed certainly hasn’t been there this season and somethings got to give at some point.
In comparison to teammate Kurt Busch who has 3 top-five’s 8 top-ten finishes and an average finish of 10.3, the team needs to figure out what’s going wrong if Larson hopes to make the playoffs.
Larson has shown he can win this season, but it wasn’t a point’s paying race.
The Elk Grove, CA native found himself holding off fellow competitor Kevin Harvick in the final 15 laps of the All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to win one million dollars a few weeks ago.
The high of visiting victory lane wouldn’t last with disappointing results the following races at Charlotte where he finished 33rd and Pocono where Larson won the first two stages but was ultimately left with a sour 26th place result.
Following the Coca-Cola 600 from CMS, crew chief Chad Johnston voiced that the team hasn’t started the season out the season like they’d hoped.
“We definitely haven’t started off like we wanted to, but normally we start off pretty well and don’t wind up finishing well. So hopefully we’re on pace to kind of hit our stride to where we’re stringing together some finishes and competing for wins.”
Can Larson turn around his season at a track where he’s seen so much success and lock himself into the playoffs before it’s too late? Tune into the FireKeepers Casino 400 from Michigan International Speedway at 2:00pm/EDT Sunday afternoon to find out.
Seems like Kyle Larson will get the monkey off his back when he learns not to try to get more from his car than it can give him. This is a lot of DNFs for this early in the season. Kyle Busch had the same problem when he was in his first few years. The wins came, but the bad finishes also piled up. Kyle B. has learned. We will see if Kyle L. does. In Larson’s defense, he isn’t driving great equipment a lot of the time.