Kyle Larson nearly tallied his third win of 2023. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – When it comes to the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, if Kyle Larson feels like Phil Connors from the 1993 film, Groundhog Day, it does not take much to empathize with him.
After all, last year, Larson was in contention to win the race when he was engaged in a scrappy battle against Kurt Busch. In last year’s spring race, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro, who started third, was in the lead inside the final nine laps.
Coming into Turn 2, Busch drew even with Larson, unrelenting to give any real estate to the latter in their struggle for the lead and win. On that occasion, Busch bested Larson by 1.413 seconds.
This time around, Larson qualified second, missing out on the pole position to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, by 0.006 seconds.
Regardless, Larson, briefly dropping to third, worked his way back to second on Lap 4, ready to take the lead on Lap 5. As Larson attempted to clear Tyler Reddick, the race’s second place runner, both drivers tangled off Turn 4.
Reddick scooted past the spinning Larson, taking the lead, while the 2021 fall race winner dropped to 36th, forced to make an early pit stop to replace his tires.
In spite of the early race setback, Larson charged his way from 36th to 10th, salvaging a single Stage 1 point.
By far, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion made some noise in Stage 2, taking the lead for the first time in Sunday’s race on Lap 141. It would be the first of seven occasions that Larson led the race.
A Lap 159 backstretch crash involving Christopher Bell prompted a scramble between opting for stage points and track position against those pitting for tires and fuel to optimize their winning opportunities in Stage 3.
Restarting 13th, Larson managed to work his way up to ninth on the Lap 163 restart before another caution for a backstretch accident eliminated Kyle Busch from contention, essentially ending Stage 2 in caution conditions.
From there on, it was game on for Larson and his competitors in Stage 3. However, he was at a slight disadvantage with having one less set of fresh tires thanks to the Lap 5, Turn 4 spin.
Larson found himself in position to win his third race of 2023. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
Despite the less than ideal circumstances, Larson kept at it, leading 85 laps and seemingly in position to nab his third win of the 2023 season.
Unlike most races, Larson’s car seemed to excel on short green flag runs, a somewhat different agenda for the No. 5 team. As the laps winded down, Larson’s once quick Camaro became twitchy and nervous in the corners, forcing the nimble driver to wrassle control of his car for the final 10 laps.
Lap after lap, Larson seemed to have his car under control even if his No. 5 car raced more like a sprint car than a Gen 7 stock car. Coming to the race’s final lap, Larson held a slight advantage over Denny Hamlin, the Stage 1 winner.
Rounding over from Turns 1 and 2, Hamlin attempted to side draft Larson’s car with both drivers running alongside each other. Hamlin made contact with Larson, sending the latter into a brief but costly encounter with the backstretch wall.
Somehow, Larson regained control of his wrecked car, driving to a runner-up to Hamlin, the first win for the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry since last year’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
Ultimately, there was not much Larson could do in his attempts to win Sunday’s race.
“I was really loose. I was trying to do what I could to manage it,” Larson said. “I was really loose at that end and, yeah, (Denny Hamlin) was just a little better than me at the end.
“I haven’t seen a replay either, but obviously, he was side-drafting really aggressively like he would but he was touching me, it felt like. It just had me out of control, so I wish we could see what we could do.”
