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Kyle Larson Enters Goodyear 400 At Darlington Coming Off Epic Win In Kansas

by Hunter Thomas May 6, 2024 0 comments

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Kyle Larson enters the Goodyear 400 coming off the closest margin of victory in NASCAR Cup Series history. The Hendrick Motorsports driver beat Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds at Kansas Speedway, and now he looks to continue the momentum at Darlington Raceway as he hunts for this third win of the 2024 season.

Larson came up just one position short of winning his second title last November at Phoenix Raceway, and so far this season, the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team has continues to showcase their speed.

“We’ve racked up a ton of stage points compared to the field, which has been huge,” Larson said. “Stage wins, as well, which obviously helps. Then we’ve been finishing good, too. We’ve either been top-five every race or something has happened where we finished just around 20^th.”

It only took Larson three points races for him to visit Victory Lane this season as he won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and stamped his ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs. Since early March, Larson has earned four additional top-five finishes and a win this past weekend at Kansas Speedway.

“Yeah, I think it definitely helps confidence anytime you can run good,” Larson said on Sunday night at Kansas Speedway. “It’s been a while since I have had consecutive podiums. I was able to finish second last week at Dover; second in Jacksonville in a Sprint Car; third the first night at Lakeside and second last night; and then carried it on into a win today. So, another good track for us next week at Darlington and hopefully go back-to-back there.”

Larson will be busy in the month of May, which includes his first INDYCAR start in the prestigious Indy 500, but first, he’s going to have to tame the Lady in Black, a track where he has found tremendous success.

“It stays pretty exciting I feel like,” said Larson about his schedule for May. “But the way the schedule lines out, for sure it’s just good tracks for us as well as others. But yeah, we had a good run last week, finished second and then got a win this week, felt like we’d have a good shot. Obviously going to Darlington I know we’ll have a good shot.”

Despite having an average finish of 9.4 at Darlington, Larson just recently earned his first victory at the track last September in the prestigious Cook Out 400. From 2018-2021, Larson earned a third and then captured three consecutive runner-up finishes at Darlington but failed to crack the top-10 in the next three races at the track, so lately, his results at the South Carolina track have fluctuated. In 12 career starts at Darlington Raceway, Larson has amassed six top-five and eight top-10 finishes.

On Sunday, Larson will pilot a throwback scheme honoring Terry Labonte and his iconic Kellogg’s Chevrolet that he drove to a title in 1996.

The Goodyear 400 will broadcast live on FS1 at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 12.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com