Kyle Larson’s week on the race track began in High Limit Racing victory lane at Thunderbowl Raceway in California on Wednesday night and ended in the same fashion on Sunday — hoisting a trophy at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Cup Series.
Larson’s once-in-a-generation adaptability to various race cars has became the norm for people within the motorsports industry.
However, it doesn’t diminish the astonishment it gives when success happens over and over again.
In the case of NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, who serves as vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, it gave him a slight crack of a smile during the closing laps at Homestead as Larson rallied from fourth to get around teammate Alex Bowman for the eventual victory.
“Just watching him at his craft at this track, it’s like watching him at Knoxville or Eldora or something, in my opinion,” Gordon said.
Homestead-Miami Speedway has been arguably Larson’s best track dating back to his humble beginnings in the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series as he boasts four victories across NASCAR’s top three series at the 1.5-mile track.
A large reason is because of is uncanny ability to find speed mere inches from the wall at Homestead, much like he does on a dirt track.
Had it not been for a late-race restart in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, Larson would’ve had a clean sweep at Homestead as he also won Friday’s Truck Series event.
While Larson’s talent is on display more on a track like Homestead, Gordon looked at the topic from a broad perspective, stating it doesn’t always equate to victories.
“It’s fun, but it doesn’t guarantee wins,” Gordon said. “You don’t know when the cautions are going to come out.
“As good as his car and he is here, if he has any weakness, it’s short runs. We saw it today, and we saw it yesterday. Yeah, I mean, the 1, he got in the back of them on that restart. But I don’t even know if they win if that didn’t happen. His car just doesn’t take off as good.
“Some of that’s setup, what it takes to be good, ripping the wall on the long runs. Yeah, it just doesn’t guarantee the wins.”
Despite leading more than half of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race and having a massive lead late, it didn’t equate to a victory after the sure-fire win was diminished by an ill-timed push from Sam Mayer on a restart. Larson finished fourth in the event.
That gave the 2021 Cup Series champion “extra” motivation on Sunday.
“Given past history, I just wanted to take the green flag and kick everybody’s ass today, honestly,” Larson said. “I wanted to get the lead early and just dominate like I was yesterday.”
Larson’s mindset quickly shifted, however, and it turned into a humbling moment.
“Then the green flag flew, and it was like the opposite,” Larson said. “I was going backwards and getting pissed off in the helmet and just frustrated, but just figured that that day was not going to go like that. Then, yeah, you just forget about all that.
“I think just leading into the race, that’s what your thought process is. But then after ten laps or so, I quickly forgot about the wanting to kick everybody’s ass all race long. It was more, Let’s work hard at this and get a win. And that’s how the race played out.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m proud of myself for kind of overcoming that immature mindset before the race and just digging down deep to stay in it because it wasn’t a typical Homestead for me. I was never able to get the lead until it really mattered, where typically I lead all the laps that don’t matter except for the last one.
“Yeah, just proud that we were able to keep our heads in it today.”
Even the series’ top stars have humbling moments here and there.
Gordon assured that Sunday’s win was more than enough to clear up the frustrations of the Xfinity Series finish.
“I think today made up for it,” Gordon laughed. “I think that he’ll forget about yesterday (Saturday) pretty quickly after this win.”
