Kyle Larson leads Denny Hamlin during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sprint All-Star Race last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Kyle Larson is close – and he knows it.
Two weeks ago at Dover International Speedway, he ran a near second to Matt Kenseth in the AAA 400, dogging the race winner to the finish line on the final green-flag run.
Last Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Larson had the lead in the $1-million-to-the-winner NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, only to be passed by Joey Logano with fewer than two laps left.
But after a star-crossed sophomore season in 2015, when he finished 19th in the standings and took a backward step from his rookie campaign, Larson has plenty of reason to be encouraged by his recent performances.
And there’s no place he’d rather make his first visit to victory lane in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series than Charlotte Motor Speedway, host venue for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
“It would mean a lot,” Larson said on Thursday at CMS. “It would mean a lot to get it anywhere, but especially here at Charlotte, close to home. Friends and family and all sorts of people are here. All the teams’ families are here. it just means a lot when you can win in your hometown or for the race shop and all that.
“We’ve been rolling good the last few weeks. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going. Our car has been getting a lot faster. Everybody at the shop has been working really hard all year long. We started the year off not great, but everybody stayed positive and kept digging. Lately, we’ve been bringing really good stuff to the track.”
Because of his strong performance in the All-Star Race, Larson knows he’ll have to buck a trend to win NASCAR’s longest event.
“It’ll be tough – the 600 is a really tough race,” he said. “A lot of the times I’ve seen drivers in the past that run well in the All-Star race don’t run well at the 600. Hopefully, that’s not the case this week, but we’re going to work really hard to try and have a good run. Hopefully, it all works out.”
Edwards Calls Coca-Cola 600 His Biggest Win
Another driver who will have to overcome the odds to fulfill his wish list is Carl Edwards, the defending winner of the Coca-Cola 600.
Regular viagra cheap use of Diabkil herbal pill increases insulin production in your body. Beautifully, the product will be delivered sildenafil cipla http://miamistonecrabs.com/cialis-5427 to your home / office anywhere around the world. There can be many other possible causes of ED in men, Kamagra tadalafil prescription Super p-force tablets also cures the problem of erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. The STOP error screen struck the OS/2 when developers were porting other tools from Lattice, Inc. via internet. levitra sample Not since Jimmie Johnson triumphed in the 2005 race during a string of four straight victories at Charlotte has a driver won NASCAR’s longest contest two consecutive times. Edwards, of course, would like nothing better than to break the current 10-year streak of different winners.
There’s a big difference in circumstances, though. Edwards came to Charlotte last year without a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, struggling during the early stages of his maiden season with Joe Gibbs Racing.
This year Edwards has won twice and has clinched a spot in the Chase.
“It’s probably the biggest race that I’ve ever won,” Edwards said. “There was so much going on last year at that time – we won the race and I was so relieved with everything we’d been through up to that point in the season.
“There was a lot of pressure, so we won the race and the pressure came off and I was like, ‘Man, it’s great to get that win.’ Still, it’s just one of those wins that over time it’s just grown, and when we came here to do the media, I was telling the folks when I was here and I was reading through the run of show, they had me listed as the Coca-Cola 600 champion and I was like, ‘Man, that’s really cool.’
“I’m still getting my head around the fact that we won that race. It would be nice to do it again.”
Logano Is Focused Only On The Race He’s Running
The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend is the most notable in motorsports, with the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 all run on the same day.
To NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race winner Joey Logano, however, only one race matters. Unlike many of his fellow competitors, Logano won’t be paying much attention to the broadcasts of Monaco and Indy – even though his team owner, Roger Penske, will be trying to add to his record 16 Indy 500 victories.
“I really like the Coca-Cola 600,” Logano said. “To be honest with you, I’m so focused in on it, I don’t really watch anything else. I’ll flip through the Indy 500 throughout the day, periodically, but not very often. I’m not as focused in on that.
“We’ve got a race of our own that we have to worry about, but as a Team Penske driver, obviously we have a lot to root for up in Indy… It’s just a cool race weekend for a race fan. You can watch three huge races where there’s a lot on the line, and it’s pretty fun to be a part of that.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.