RELATED: Meet the 16-driver Chase field
Kyle Larson was all wide smiles and high hopes late Saturday night leaning against his Chevrolet on pit road after a runner-up finish in the regular-season finale at Richmond, Virginia — his third consecutive top-three showing.
The 24-year-old is (almost) three weeks removed from his maiden Sprint Cup Series victory at Michigan, and five days into his first championship run that starts Sunday in Chicago.
“Our team has some momentum at the right time and that’s nice,” said Larson’s team owner, Chip Ganassi, who boasts two Chase-qualified drivers (also Jamie McMurray, in the No. 1 Chevy) for the first time.
As NASCAR’s championship cranks up this week for the first round of the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, everyone has a well-contemplated opinion on who will be the 2016 champ.
It’s absolutely one of the most interesting — and wide-open — Chase fields ever from top to bottom.
Toyotas have been strong and boast an impressive lineup from Martin Truex Jr. to defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch.
It’s also hard to argue against the Ford camp led by Team Penske drivers, four-time winner Brad Keselowskii and Joey Logano, victor at the season’s first Michigan event.
And Chevrolet, of course, boasts three former champions in Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick along with several promising newcomers, including Larson.
During the preseason, I picked Johnson to win his record-tying seventh Sprint Cup title and have made that pick consistently every year, figuring it will surely come for the modern era’s most impressive, don’t-count-him-out champion. But his Hendrick team needs to turn it on now.
Perhaps most interesting is the “batch” of Chase first-timers such as Larson, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher — all young drivers who will be recurring themes in the title scenario for the next decade.
But Larson is there above others in this unprecedented roster of young, talented championship contenders.
He has finishes of first (Michigan), third (Darlington) and second (at Richmond) in his last three races and four top-six finishes in the last six races.
His six top-three finishes on the season in the No. 42 Target Chevrolet equal the work of Kevin Harvick, while Busch has nine and Keselowski has eight.
“We have a ton of momentum rolling here,” a smiling Larson said Saturday night. “Three top-threes in a row, that’s great for our team going into the Chase. Hopefully we can keep it going.
“We’ve got good speed in the cars. And especially at the mile and a half tracks is where Chip Ganassi Racing excels right now, and those are my favorite tracks as well. There’s a lot of those in the Chase, which is good.”
Larson’s rookie showing at Chase tracks — but not as a Chase-eligible competitor — was big news in 2014. He had six top-10 finishes in the 10 races, including five straight beginning at Chicago. Twice he finished runner-up (at New Hampshire and Kansas).
So not only has Larson proven himself capable of success at these venues in the past, but he is also peaking at the right time.
And, the Ganassi Racing team has won season titles in every other form of racing it has competed in — from IndyCar to IMSA.
Focus and drive are not issues here. It’s just a matter of getting it done in the stock car ranks like the team has in every other form of motorsport.
Larson is ready. His team is ready. It’s time to buckle up.