Larson back on form with Watkins win
NASCAR CUP WATKINS GLEN (USA) 8 AUGUST
ROUND 23/36
Hendrick Motorsports returned to its winning ways last Sunday as Kyle Larson out-duelled team-mate Chase Elliott for NASCAR Cup victory at Watkins Glen.
Larson went into the lead with 26 of the 90 laps remaining, following a round of green-flag pitstops, and built a sizeable lead. But Elliott, who had won the two previous races at the 2.45-mile road course, finally got back into contention after starting from the rear due to multiple pre-race inspection failures.
Elliott moved into second behind Larson with eight laps left but, without the benefit of a late caution to bunch the field, the best Elliott could do was close a 10-second gap down to 2.4s at the flag.
Still, lapped traffic in the final four laps had made Larson nervous. “Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track,” he said. “So when I caught those four [lapped] cars, I thought I would look at my mirror and [Elliott] would be right on me. Thankfully, I had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake.”
The win was Larson’s fifth of the year – the most in one season in his career – and he is now tied on points with Denny Hamlin for the regular season lead with three races remaining before the start of the playoffs.
The victory ended a bit of a dry spell for Larson and his Hendrick Chevrolet team. Since he won three straight races at the end of May and into the beginning of June, he’d gone without victory in the previous five rounds and had only led a total of 15 laps.
Martin Truex Jr finished third, Kyle Busch fourth and Hamlin fifth in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 3-4-5.