Kyle Larson and his No. 42 team were hoping to break through for a win at Kentucky Speedway after finishing second at Chicago two weeks ago and a disappointing 20th last week at Daytona.
Larson, however, qualified in the 19th position, not the qualifying spot he wanted or needed as it would take a lot of work to get to the front. In the first stage, he worked himself up to the 13th position which demonstrated how important track position is at Kentucky. In fact, Larson flew under the radar most of the night as he did not have the best car. His mid-race running position was ninth but he improved in Stage 2, finishing sixth.
Larson had a shot at the win with a late race restart with two laps to go. He was right behind his teammate Kurt Busch and gave him a shove. Busch went to the outside while Larson was stuck in traffic. In the end, the No. 42 driver had to watch his teammate Kurt Busch battle for the win while he ended his night with a fourth-place finish.
“I actually felt like we had a really good car, I just did such a bad job on those restarts and my balance was really loose,” Larson explained to PRN about his race. “I couldn’t gain anything and my track position wasn’t great the whole race, and then the very bottom of this frontstretch was rough as heck. I think I damaged my nose a little bit.”
“But it was cool to push Kurt (Busch, teammate) there past the leaders. You know, a good day for Chip Ganassi Racing, happy about that!”
Larson earned his third top-five finish of the year and he currently sits 13th in the playoff points standings.
