Larson Seeking An End To Recent Cup Series Skid

Kyle Larson (Peter Casey/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

CONCORD, N.C. – Considering Kyle Larson is routinely mentioned as one of the greatest racers in the world, his standards are regularly much higher than others.

Larson expects to be competing for wins and championships, not top 15s and mid-pack finishes. And recently, things haven’t gone the way of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series titlist, by any assessment.

Mired in a mid-summer slump, Larson has been outside the top 10 in four of the last five races, including two finishes of 35th or worse during that span.

At California’s Sonoma Raceway last Sunday, that didn’t change. Despite nine stage points in the race, Larson finished 35th, the third time in four road course races this year he’s finished 30th or worse.

It’s a troubling trend Larson hopes to fix, and quickly, with the playoffs just two months away.

“Hopefully we can get back on a run of being consistent and getting stage points. I feel like in a way we've still kind of been consistent,” said Larson during a weekend media availability from Sonoma. “But we just haven't finished as high as we have earlier in the year, and then we've been missing out on stage points.”

It’s no secret the 32-year-old has fallen short of finding race winning speed the last few weeks. He’s only had three top tens since the May All-Star break, and one top 10 – at Pocono Raceway – in over a month.

Sunday at Sonoma was the first time he led laps in a race since the Coca-Cola 600 in May, ending a six-week drought after leading three total.

But with the Cup Series putting a pause of road racing until Aug. 10, Larson could get back on track with a return to the ovals. Delaware’s Dover Motor Speedway is the start of three weeks without road racing, and that could be his first opportunity at rebounding.

With his struggles have also come a slip in the regular season points battle. Though Larson still ranks third in the standings, he sits 44 points back of Hendrick Motorsports teammate and series leader William Byron.

“We’ve kind of lost track a little bit there, and others have been doing a good job. Chase Elliott is always consistent, so he’s just quietly kind of there. After his Atlanta win that he had, I was shocked at the small gap,” said Larson. “I didn’t even know he was that close in points. And then William Byron has been really strong this year, but he’s had some bad luck in a couple races lately,” he added. “It’s like when the points leader can’t get away, it just kind of brings it all together.

“There's still a lot of racing left. If you go on a good run, you can stretch out here pretty quickly.”

The good run Larson is looking for could start Sunday at Dover. The concrete mile has treated him well in his career, as he holds an average finish of eighth since 2013, and a 13th place benchmark across three starts in the Next Gen car.

“For what we have on the racetrack, I feel like we’ve executed really well. You know, just on paper, it looks like we’re just very average, which we have been,” said Larson of his recent performance. “We’ve taken days where we've not been a top 10 car and finished in the top 10 or even top five.”

At Dover, Larson has 938 laps led, which is second among active full-time drivers in the Cup Series. In 16 starts, he has 12 top 10s and eight top fives. Last season there, he led 39 laps and finished second to Denny Hamlin.

This weekend Larson hopes to control the controllables and prevent mistakes. In the past, he admits he’s overstepped with the car, which has caused him to crash at times.

That push to perform is understandable, though, given that Larson hasn’t won a race since May at Kansas Speedway.

“We've gone to some tracks where when you look at results from the past, we haven't been nearly as competitive or have had the race winning speed,” he said. “It hasn’t carried over to this year at some of those places too.”

What’s kept Larson levelheaded has been his crew chief Cliff Daniels, who’s worked with him at Hendrick Motorsports since 2021.

“I think Cliff is really good at articulating his words and thoughts. He seems to always know the right thing to say at the right time,” noted Larson. “If anything, it just gets me pumped up, but it also gets me refocused or more focused on what's ahead.”

Despite his recent drought, Larson still has nine top fives and 12 top 10s this season. He will look for his first win in two months, and his first at Dover since he last won with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019, on Sunday.

Coverage of the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 from Dover begins July 20 at 2 p.m. ET, live on TNT Sports, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.