Kyle Larson rebounded from a Daytona debacle with a win at Fontana. (Photo: James Gilbert | Getty Images)
After a heartbreak at Daytona, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson responded in style at Auto Club Speedway.
Starting toward the rear of the field for an unapproved adjustment, Larson wasted no time getting to the front. By the end of stage 1, the 29-year-old Elk Grove, California native placed fifth.
Following a brief lead on lap 74, Larson hovered inside the top five for the balance of the race. Not even a problem exchanging the left front tire on a lap 132 pit stop derailed the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy.
Working his way up to ninth spot by lap 152, good fortunes presided with the Californian while a fellow Golden State native’s race fell apart.
Tyler Reddick, who started 11th and led for 90 laps, had a flat right rear tire heading into turn 1. Limping around the track, Reddick and William Byron tangled off turn 2 with the latter crashing for the second straight race. Byron placed 34th while Reddick netted a 24th place finish.
Following a couple of cautions, namely a turn 2 crash involving Daytona 500 winner, Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski, Harrison Burton and Bubba Wallace on lap 160, and Ross Chastain’s spin off turn 4 on lap 174, it was game on for 2018 Cup champion Joey Logano and Larson.
For the final 22 laps, Logano and Larson dueled like Jedi Knights with a resurgent Chase Elliott ready to pounce. As the trio rounded off turn 4 toward the stripe, Logano was toward the inside of Larson with Elliott preparing for a daring outside pass.
However, Larson and Elliott tangled just past the stripe with the latter hitting the wall. Larson continued his battle with Logano while a displeased Elliott trying to carry on with a damaged No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro.
Elliott brought out the race’s final caution on lap 194 when he spun off turn 2, prompting a critical final round of pit stops. Like last season’s finale at Phoenix, Larson’s over the wall pit crew delivered by helping their driver regain the lead.
For those final five laps, Larson drove masterfully with a balanced approach while staving off a myriad of potent challengers like Logano, Daniel Suárez and Austin Dillon.
Defending champion Larson returned to Fontana victory lane. (Photo: Meg Oliphant | Getty Images)
Unlike Daytona, Larson’s handy driving along with great teamwork resulted in the No. 5 team’s first win of this season.
“Yeah, that was a tough restart,” Larson recalled. “I had Joey behind me and I knew I was going to have to fight him off. I hadn’t really spent much time on Suárez, but he had told me that he was pretty good on the short runs.
“Yeah, I knew I was going to have to fight him off. Was hoping that I wouldn’t, but Joey was so good I felt like on the short run that I was more worried about him through 1 and 2, and had to — I peeled off to the middle and he was able to run a lot of speed and get close to my outside, and I kind of had to throttle up to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Suárez seemed to get past Larson for the lead with a strong run off turn 4 in the closing laps. Calm and poised, Larson tapped into his experiences and regained the top spot from Suárez for good in the final going of the race.
“It got us kind of choked up off of 2, and Suárez had a good one in 2 and a really good 3 and 4 and got by me,” Larson recalled. “Then — actually I think I led through 3 and 4. They got a good push behind me and got clear into 1, and then he went to the bottom again once we got to 3 and 4 the next time by, and I’m not sure if he got tight or loose or what, but his momentum was killed off of 4 and I was able to get a good run to get by him.
“And then Austin, I hadn’t spent much time around him, either, and he seemed to be good on the short run running the bottom. I just knew — I felt good on the bottom throughout the race, but I knew being the leader I was going to have the best shot of protecting any runs coming from behind me if I just ran up top and kept my speed wound up. I was able to do that and get to the white before — it sounded like there was a crash, and get the win.”
Despite the fact that Larson’s victory was not the patented, dominant variety prevalent with last season’s championship, it still counts and showcases the confidence and resilience with the 10th year Cup veteran.
Another win, another success for Larson and his No. 5 team. (Photo: James Gilbert | Getty Images)
“Yeah, I just think, who knows, but I think your teams with more resources and more people and more engineers and stuff like that will still have the edge over the other teams, even though we’re all kind of racing the same car,” he shared. “But just we’ll be able to build a notebook hopefully a little quicker than others and get back to dominating like we did last year.”
Ultimately, that could be bad news for the competition given how Larson’s the defending Pennzoil 400 winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of the third Cup race of 2022 (Sunday, March 6 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX).
