AVONDALE, AZ.: It appeared throughout Sunday’s Instacart 500 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway that Kyle Larson had a fast enough Hendrick Motorsports car to make it back-to-back victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, but a series of mistakes and an ill-handling car kept them from conquering the task.
Despite starting the race at the front of the field, Larson would drop to the rear before the start of the fifth NASCAR Cup Series race of the season after his car failed inspection twice on Saturday.
The Elk Grove, Calif. native put on a show from the drop of the green flag picking up spots right and left with his No. 5 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet Camaro.
At the competition caution at Lap 30, Larson had drove up to 14th and showcased to the field that he had one of the fastest cars on the track.
Unfortunately for Larson, even after exiting pit road ninth, his hard work was all for not as NASCAR tagged him for speeding on pit road – sending him back to the field again.
Larson again charged back through the field to complete Stage 1 in ninth reporting to crew chief Cliff Daniels that his car was tighter in the traction compound and loose outside of it.
Continuing to march forward through Stage 2, Larson moved into a race-high second at Lap 128 but during green flag pits stop to wind down the stage, Larson sped again on pit road sending him down pit road for a drive-thru penalty.
Luckily, Larson emerged from pit road ahead of race leader Joey Logano and was able to distance himself from the Team Penske driver in the final laps of Stage 2. At the end of the Stage, he was able to keep his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro on the lead lap and just outside the top-10 in 13th.
Throughout the third and final stage, Larson continued to elevate himself forward and up to seventh with 100 laps to go.
12 laps later, he worked his way back inside the top-five and when the caution waved with 50 laps to go for Tyler Reddick – Larson has muscled his way back to the runner-up spot.
Restarting inside the top-five with less than 30 laps to go, Larson went backwards when it counted most – having to battle Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott for a spot inside the top-five.
Once passed by Elliott, the handling continued to deteriorate for Larson – which baffled the driver and forced him to settle for seventh when the checkered flag waved.
Even with the backslide at the end of the race, Larson still managed to deliver his fourth top-10 for Hendrick Motorsports and third consecutively.
After the race, Larson described just how loose his Chevrolet became in the closing laps.
“Yeah, I hadn’t felt loose in all day and that last run, I got loose in and just couldn’t get in the corners as aggressive as I needed to,” said Larson. “I ended up guarding my entry zones; my angles for exit aren’t great. It just kind of made everything harder. The No. 9 (Chase Elliott) and No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) got behind me and finished seventh. It was weird that I hadn’t had it all day.”
Larson pledges to clean up his errors and have a smoother race for his team moving forward to Atlanta and onward.
“I had a really fast car again,” added Larson. “That’s very promising and just have to clean up mistakes on my end and have a smoother race.”
Despite delivering his 105th career top-10 finish, Larson dropped two spots in points to fifth heading to Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway next weekend, a track where the 28-year-old has delivered three top-10s in six career starts – including a track best of second in 2017 driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
