JOLIET, Ill. – Kyle Larson hasn’t forgotten about last year’s finish with Kyle Busch at Chicagoland Speedway, but not because he’s frustrated or bitter.
“It was just such an exciting finish,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “I got into him in (Turn) 2 and he got into me in (Turn) 3, so I thought it was fair game. Just good, hard racing for a win. These Cup wins are hard to come by, so we each did everything we could to win — but he just had the last punch.”
As much fun as it was for fans to witness that show of skill and determination between Busch and Larson, it might have been the most fun the No. 42 driver has ever had being a bridesmaid.
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“I’m a racer, but I’m also a fan of racing and the sport and I knew that was an exciting finish,” Larson said. “I didn’t think that he did anything wrong getting into me because I got into him first. I didn’t have anything to get over; I just got beat.”
If Larson is put into the same situation in Sunday’s Camping World 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he might reconsider his strategy from last year and hold back to stay even with Busch down the backstretch.
“It’s hard to tell yourself to lift when you’re going down a straightaway, but if I could have side-by-side with him into (Turns) 3 and 4, I think I would have won,” Larson said. “But I also didn’t know if I ran side-by-side with him if he would have just hooked me in the fence for running into him out of (Turn) 2.”
“You really don’t know what’s going on in each other’s minds either when you’re out there racing,” he added. “It’s easy to look back after things. You don’t know if the next person will react differently in that situation.”
This season, Larson feels the speed in the No. 42 car has been there because both he and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kurt Busch have had fast Chevrolets. It’s just the execution that needs work, as he has collected one top five and five top 10s in 16 events.
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“I feel like I’ve been very similar on speed with him (Kurt Busch) all year long. Their team’s just done a really, really good job of executing toward the end of the races,” Larson said. “Even the midpoint of the race just to position themselves. He’s really high in the points (eighth) and I’m barely in the cutoff (15th).
“I know we can go out and compete like he has, so it’s been a frustrating year. But I’ve been positive about it all because I can see the potential we have in our cars.”
Fresh off a pole position and a 10th-place finish at Sonoma, Larson is hopeful it can translate into another strong run this weekend.
“We had a solid week is what I can take away from that,” he said. “I feel like we maximized our day with gaining points, sacrificing a higher finish for more points in stages and things like that.”
With 10 races to go in the regular season, Larson is just 17 points ahead of Ryan Newman on the cutline, meaning any rhythm he and the No. 42 team hope to build on needs to begin now.
“We need to put a few weekends together in a row where we’ve executed the right way,” Larson said. “Hopefully we can just get some momentum, keep it and stretch out that gap to the cutoff a little bit.”