Kyle Larson finished the Talladega Cup Series race with his best result at the superspeedway last weekend. Finishing second at the Jack Link’s 500 after the disqualification of Ryan Preece ahead of him, he admitted that there wasn’t much else he could do to move up the pack.
The race was certainly exciting, with Austin Cindric leading Preece by just 0.022 seconds in the No. 2 Penske Ford for a nail biting finish. The pack saw 67 lead changes through 23 different drivers, and Larson – who started all the way down in 25th – pushed his way through to finish on the podium in a display of dominant racing.
Winning Stage 1, he then finished third in Stage 2, bringing home 54 points after the disqualification of Preece.
Following the race, Larson admitted the difficulties he faced as the drivers neared the end of the race.
“There wasn’t really much I could do the final five laps. I wanted to go to the outside lane when we got clear of William [Byron], but I felt like the gap was too big to move up and the No. 60 [Ryan Preece] was able to fill it.
“I was still happy to be second row on the inside lane, obviously happy to be front row, but I just didn’t know how it was going to play out from there.
“There at the end, you’re just trying to give the right pushes to get clear and then maybe he starts blocking lanes and something would open up for me. I was just kind of jammed up there.”
The last five laps saw a fiery duel between Cindric and Preece with Larson pushing Cindric from behind. This meant Larson couldn’t push forward without the risk of going backwards.
“I will take a third-place finish. We had a great day, points-wise, for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. Winning the first stage was a bit unexpected, and then finishing third in the second stage from where we were on the final restart was also unexpected.
“Just a really good day, overall, for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy.”
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