The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One month in, Kyle Larson feeling good with Hendrick
LAS VEGAS — Kyle Larson was out of NASCAR long enough to wonder if he’d still feel comfortable in a Cup car. He raced in nearly 100 events last year, just not in 3,400-pound stock cars. Would it feel the same as he remembered? Had his instincts slipped?
Larson, who won 42 of 83 openwheel races during his NASCAR suspension for using a racial slur, has fallen right back into the old routine. “I thought there would be cobwebs and rust. But maybe because I raced so much last year in sprint cars and open wheel cars ... I felt as fresh as ever,” Larson said. “When I got in the car and put my head-and-neck restraint on and buckled up, everything just felt normal. It didn’t feel like I had been out of the car a long time.
“Even shifting gears and coming down pit road and stopping on my pit sign and stuff like that, like it’s all come natural so far.”
Larson, fired by Chip Ganassi Racing after using a racial slur during an iRacing event in April, was hired by Hendrick Motorsports when his ban was lifted at the end of last season. His official return was last month at Daytona International Speedway, where he opened his second chance in NASCAR with a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500.
He was running in the top three with seven laps remaining a week later on the Daytona road course when Larson spun his Chevrolet and fell to a 30th-place finish. Last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Larson led five laps and finished fourth, marking back-to-back weeks he believed he had a shot to win. Next up is today’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It’s the fourth race of the season and falls one day short of his fourth and final Cup race a year ago. The season was paused for the pandemic, and Larson was suspended during the shutdown and missed the final 32 races of the year.
Despite his layoff and the move to a new organization, he’s already fitting in well at Hendrick Motorsports. The team got its first win of the season last week from William Byron, a playoff driver who typically hovers around the cutoff mark but is now automatically qualified. Alex Bowman had one of the fastest cars at the Daytona 500, and reigning series champ Chase Elliott could have won the Daytona 500 and the road course race a week later. Chad Knaus, vice president of competition, believes Hendrick drivers could have swept the first three races of the season and Larson could get a victory soon.
XFINITY SERIES: AJ Allmendinger raced to the first victory of his comeback season by passing Daniel Hemric on the final restart Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The victory was the sixth in the Xfinity Series for Allmendinger, who retired at the end of the 2018 season. Hemric led a race-high 74 laps in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
TRUCK SERIES: John Hunter Nemechek ended boss Kyle Busch’s three-race winning streak at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, taking the victory late Friday. In just his third race driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Nemecheck led Busch across the finish line.
SATURDAY, MARCH 6 Cash 3 Midday: 9-5-7 Cash 3 Evening: 8-6-4 Cash 3 Night:
6-8-3 (Friday)
Cash 4 Midday: 5-8-4-8 Cash 4 Evening: 6-8-4-6 Cash 4 Night:
1-5-8-4 (Friday)
Georgia Five Midday: 7-2-6-0-8
Georgia Five Evening: 6-8-4-1-6
Fantasy 5: 04-11-14-2635 (Friday)
Mega Millions: 10-1117-27-54 Mega Ball 20 Megaplier 2X (Friday)