DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The results may not show it, but Kyle Larson has had a knack for finding his way near the front of the field of late in superspeedway races. Of his 23 NASCAR Cup Series career wins, none have come on a superspeedway (in 41 tries). Eventually, that ability to be near the front has to pay off in a trip to victory lane right?
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"I'm just like a small decision away from making the right move and putting myself in the right spot there at the very end," Larson said. "I do a good job of getting us to that point where so many times on the final restart we're lined up on the first, second row and then I finish 28th.
"Every circumstance is different. I feel like we're not far off from being successful here. Just got to keep getting after it."
His latest opportunity to make more gains on superspeedway came in the first of the two Duel at Daytona races on Thursday night. Larson led a race-high 20 laps and was holding the point position coming to the white flag. However, he got passed for the lead on the final lap, got a little sideways up the track and fell back to ninth.
"I felt really good about my car," Larson said. "Our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast and I think we learned a lot."
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At the 2023 DAYTONA 500, Larson was battling his friend and eventual race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in an overtime finish when he was caught up in an incident and finished 18th. In 2017, he led "The Great American Race" coming to the white flag before running out of fuel. Superspeedway racing can be somewhat of a chess match as drivers try to figure out what line is going to make more progress and when to hop in and out of line to make a move.
"I had that big run on Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.)," Larson said as he reflected on last year’s race. "The 20 (Christopher Bell) was pushing behind me. I just felt like that run I had was way too big to stay behind Ricky because I would have just slammed him and probably caused a crash. I thought the safe bet was to go to the middle. Nobody was able to go with me. Then I got somebody from outside me that got hooked and I got crashed.
"If I can just kind of at times be more patient, but at times I think you need to be more aggressive as well. I think there are times where I'm, like, half a step behind."
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The 2021 Cup Series champion has had success in several of NASCAR’s crown jewel races with wins in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (2021) and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (2023). Next, he’d love to add the DAYTONA 500 and the Harley J. Earl Trophy to his collection.
"You want to win the big ones," Larson said. "It doesn't get any bigger than this one for the NASCAR schedule. They continue to make it bigger and better every year. It's just a prestigious event. The trophy, the crowd and the atmosphere here are unmatched for our schedule. All of those combined make for an event that you want to win.
"There's been so many Hall of Famers that have won this race or guys who this race made their career as a Hall-of-Fame career. I think knowing all that makes you want to win it. Hopefully, someday I can add my name to the winners' list."
Tune in to watch Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team compete for the win in the 2024 DAYTONA 500 on Monday, Feb. 19, at 4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).