Despite Kyle Larson’s shaky track record at the refit Atlanta Motor Speedway, he has been in the mix for a Peach Tree State win. (Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
HAMPTON, Ga. – Like Rusty Wallace with his approach at superspeedway races, it is safe to say that Kyle Larson enters these weekends with some trepidation.
However, as the late Buddy Baker once reminded Wallace prior to the 1999 Daytona 500, “You have to learn to love this place. As long as you feel badly about it, you’ll never win.”
Not long after NASCAR’s “Gentle Giant” imparted some wisdom to the 1989 Cup Series champion, the latter nearly captured his first “Great American Race Win.” Settling for a top 10 result, Wallace looked more like a confident, prepared driver who embraced this treacherous, unpredictable style of stock car racing.
In Larson’s case, he has improved with positioning himself for late race battles at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta. Namely, with this year’s races at these venues, the 2021 champion was in the mix in the closing moments before getting swept up in grinding accidents.
Unlike the spring races at these superspeedways, Larson enters Sunday night’s Quaker State 400 with momentum on his side. The 30-year-old racer, who qualified eighth, has four consecutive top 10 results.
As the sole Chevrolet among the sea of Fords and Toyotas starting inside the top 10, Larson hopes to turn his results around toward a positive trend.
“Drafting tracks have always proved challenging,” Larson said in a Team Chevy press release. “I don’t have as good of a track record at them as I would like, but the finishes don’t always fully depict the No. 5 team’s day. We’ve had a couple decent runs on drafting tracks this season before trouble came our way.”
Earlier this year, Larson was in the hunt for a potential win or top 10 result before getting swept up in a hard, frontstretch crash with Aric Almirola, relegated to a 31st place DNF.
Larson’s qualified inside the top 10 in each of this year’s superspeedway races. (Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
Despite the unfavorable results at the 1.54-mile quad oval venue, the No. 5 team wants to right the ship starting with Sunday night’s race.
Like Larson, crew chief Cliff Daniels is focused on turning the team’s luck around at the 63-year-old stock car venue.
“For the No. 5 team in Atlanta, it’s odd to say that we are looking forward to it because unfortunately in the Next Gen era, I don’t know that we’ve actually finished a race (there),” Daniels said in an OEM press release. “The track layout is a lot different and the package that we have is definitely tough and challenging. I feel like we’ve had some good cars there and even had some good runs going, even though we haven’t always got the finish.
“We are looking forward to going to Atlanta. It’s going to be a tough and hot race. In the middle of the summer, it will be cool to have a night race. Hopefully, we can stay out of trouble and have a good enough car to get up front by the end.”
In recent superspeedway races, Hendrick Motorsports has placed more emphasis on handling over raw, sheer qualifying speed as seen during Daytona 500 front row qualifying rounds since 2015. This seems to coincide with the No. 5 team’s performances in the past four races in which consistency has been favored over the checkers or wreckers approach prevalent in the first half of the year.
Despite Larson’s preference for the latter over the conservative approach, the fine line between these extremes may pay off in the final laps of Round 19 of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
“We have some good momentum behind our team right now with four top-10 finishes. I look forward to another HendrickCars.com home race in Atlanta. It would be great to secure a strong finish in the Peach State.”
