LDN - Sports

Larson breaks into victory lane, Chase with overdue win

[August 30, 2016] By Jonathan Ingram, The Sports Xchange

The difference between owning a Sprint Cup car and driving one was evident at the Michigan International Speedway after Kyle Larson won for the first time in NASCAR's premier series. Larson shouted and screamed during his entire cool down lap. Team owner Chip Ganassi breathed a sigh of relief.

For Larson, it was an inaugural victory that was a long time coming -- 99 races and nearly three seasons. For Ganassi, the race also broke his team's 99-race losing streak, which dated back to a Jamie McMurray win at Talladega in 2013. "Winning snowballs," said Ganassi, who now can count victories in all six of the series where his cars are competing this year. "Unfortunately, so does losing."

Under special low downforce rules that were being tested for 2017, Larson, who finished third at the 2.0-mile track in June, had the fastest car in the field. But his Chevy fell too far behind on a slow pit stop to catch a fleeing Chase Elliott, who was also looking for his first career victory. A late caution and a better re-start put Larson on track for the winner's circle, where his burnout in Michigan's track side victory lane -- without the steering wheel which he had tossed out the window -- demonstrated Larson's joy and relief.

Where Larson had struggled to catch leaders unsuccessfully in the past in the late going, this time he had clear sailing as the final ten laps clicked off. "I was pretty calm for a couple laps," he said. "Then I started shaking, legs a little numb there for a couple laps. Yeah, then the last I think with two to go, I was starting to get choked up."

"We worked really, really hard to get a win, and just haven't done it," he continued. "Finally all the hard work by everybody, hundreds of people at our race shop, people who have got me through to the Cup Series, it was all paying off. It was pretty awesome. I couldn't quite catch my breath there after I got out of the car because I spent two minutes screaming because I was so pumped up. It was pretty special and I'll remember it forever."

The timing could not have been better.

After getting drop-kicked in the points at Watkins Glen International and the Bristol Motor Speedway, Larson gained entry into the Chase with just two more races remaining in the regular season -- which was a big part of Ganassi's sigh of relief. Assuming no other new winners like Larson, teammate McMurray is locked into a tight battle with Elliott, Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman for the final three spots in the Chase available to those qualifying on points. With races at the Darlington Raceway this weekend and at the Richmond International Raceway the following week, Ganassi could well get both of his cars into the Chase.

During the victory celebrations, Larson was congratulated by several other drivers, including six-time champion Jimmie Johnson and reigning Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch. The other drivers realize the sport needs new heroes, but above all they like the way Larson has worked his way to the front without trading paint, much less banging bumpers. On the other hand, he was not shy about valiantly dashing between lapped traffic while pursuing Elliott, four-wheel drifting up a lane in the process.

There have been those among fans and the media, who think Larson was not aggressive enough, especially at this year's race in Dover, Del. In that one, Larson could pull even with Matt Kenseth in the battle for the victory, but could not get past -- and elected not to put a bumper to him.

"Yeah, I mean, with Matt, I could have done something to get by him," said Larson. "But that's just not how I wanted to race him. Like I've said for a few months, you guys keep asking, 'What if? What if you would have moved him?' Now I won, so we don't have to talk about that anymore."

It was not a given that Larson would make it as a Sprint Cup driver. His friend Bryan Clauson, killed in a dirt track race this summer, signed with Ganassi to drive in NASCAR. But the likeable Clauson never made it as a Sprint Cup driver after competing in the Xfinity Series. Larson paid tribute to Clauson with special decals and in victory lane at Michigan.

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Storm clouds gather before the start of the NASCAR Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Why did it take three years for Larson, whose talent has been evident for some time, to finally score his first victory? Many a driver before him has won in fewer races. Elliott, whose botched restart cost him the victory in the Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, was in position to win in just his 29th start. The biggest hurdle has been the number of established winners driving for the dominant multi-car teams of Hendrick, Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske and Stewart-Haas Racing. Ganassi's team -- recently bolstered by the finances of new team co-owner Rob Kauffman -- has been second tier. Another problem for Larson has been finding the needed endurance to win 400-mile or 500-mile events on the big tracks and 500-lap races on the short ovals.

On his way up, Larson, like most future star talents, won quickly in everything he drove. Now 24, he once won in three different types of USAC open-wheel cars during the 4-Crown Nationals at the famed Eldora Speedway as a teenager. Before that, he became the youngest winner in California sprint car history with a victory within days of his 15th birthday (in part because the state had lowered its minimum racing age after young talents like Jeff Gordon began migrating to other states).

When it came to stock cars, Larson won his first ever start at New Smyrna Speedway at age 19, then repeated as a winner at the same track in the highly competitive World Series of Asphalt Racing.

NASCAR has been a different sort of story for the Japanese-American who became part of the sanctioning body's Drive for Diversity program. He won in his first year of competition in the Camping World Truck Series, then won in his second year of the Xfinity Series. It took three years to get to victory lane in the Sprint Cup.

"This feels different because it's taken me a lot longer than it took me in any of the other stuff to get a win," said Larson. "Took me a couple months to win my first Sprint car race, four days after my 15th birthday. Took me a few months to win when I got into USAC. Took me a few years to win an (World of) Outlaws race."

"This, after the way my rookie season started, coming close a few times, not getting it done, you can visualize the win that early in your career," he continued. "It's going to happen. It's going to happen. But it just never happened. This one's different just 'cause of how long we had to wait and how much harder I've had to work for it. Like I said, it's special because all the hard work's paid off."

It was the big night at Eldora that helped convince Ganassi to sign Larson. While many thought Larson was talented enough to move to one of NASCAR's most dominant teams, he has been loyal to Ganassi.

"Well, Chip, I owe everything to him for why I'm here today. I was just racing sprint cars and midgets in 2011 in Indiana. Him and (Managing Director) Mike (Hull) noticed me, got me signed up later that year. I have a ton of respect for them and love racing for the organization.

"I kind of like being the underdog, I guess you can say. Our team isn't up there, isn't considered with Hendrick or Penske or Gibbs. We're right below them. But I like that. I think everybody at our race shop likes that. I think it kind of drives them to work harder and push the limits of building faster race cars."

Will Larson continue to be the underdog? Is it possible that he will become the centerpiece to a Ganassi effort to break into NASCAR's elite now that extra financing is in place from Kauffman in addition to the backing of Felix Sabates?

Time -- starting with this year's Chase -- will tell.

But after the three-year initiation to a Sprint Cup victory lane, the bonds have strengthened and there's no talk about Larson looking for a ride elsewhere.

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