USA TODAY International Edition
Larson notches Cup victory
Kyle Larson needed just four races to find victory lane with Hendrick Motorsports by scoring the NASCAR Cup Series race win Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson was dominant in the Pennzoil 400, leading 103 of the 267 laps. He also won the second stage. Cycling to the race lead for the final time with 29 laps to go after green- flag pit stops, Larson gapped Brad Keselowski by over three seconds in the run to the finish.
“It was such an awesome race car,” said Larson. “Cliff and everybody did a great job preparing this piece. It was so much fun to drive; I could go wherever I wanted to. I knew I had a really good car once we got single- filed out, but drafting early in the run was tough.
“Thank you so much, Mr. ( Hendrick), Jeff Gordon, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for the amazing opportunity I’ve been gifted. HendrickCars. com, Chevrolet, everybody at the engine shop, thank you so much for the hard work. This is definitely special.”
Rick Hendrick signed Larson in late October. Larson became a free agent and sat out much of the 2020 season after being fired by Chip Ganassi following a racial slur while on iRacing. Monday marks the one- year anniversary of his final race with Ganassi.
The win is the seventh for Larson in the Cup Series and the first for crew chief Cliff Daniels. Daniels was promoted to the crew chief position in late 2019 for Jimmie Johnson. Larson’s No. 5 team is the group that was the No. 48 for Johnson in 2020. The team’s previous win was in June 2017.
Keselowski finished second, with Las Vegas native Kyle Busch finishing third. Denny Hamlin finished fourth, and Ryan Blaney finished fifth.
Larson is the fourth Cup Series winner in four races this season.