Larson snaps runner-up streak with Auto Club four hundred victory
Kyle Larson (42) celebrates winning the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. on Sunday, March 25, 2017. (Photo by Rachel Luna, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Pole sitter Kyle Larson (far left) leads the field towards turn one after taking the green flag to embark the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Race winner Kyle Larson (42) exits turn two during the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Brad Keselowski races out of towards turn one during the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Race winner Kyle Larson (42) leads Martin Truex Jr. (78) during the late laps of the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Kyle Larson pits during the early laps of the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Larson went on to win the race. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Brad Keselowski pits early in the race after spinning during the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Keselowski came back to finish 2nd behind race winner Kyle Larson. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Fans crowd the pit lane during prerace ceremonies prior to the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Kyle Larson celebrates as he exits his race car in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Martin Truex Jr. make his pit stop after winning the 2nd stage of the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
A squad member for Jimmy Johnson sits on a tire as he waits for a pit stop during the NASCAR Auto Club four hundred Sunday March 26, two thousand seventeen at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. (Photo by Will Lester-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
FONTANA >> Sunday afternoon was a bad news, good news day for Kyle Larson at the NASCAR Auto Club 400.
The bad news? He failed to equal the Monster Energy Cup Series record with a fourth consecutive second-place finish.
However, he and team proprietor Chip Ganassi were sporting broad smiles at the end of the day at Auto Club Speedway after he raced to victory in the fifth event of the two thousand seventeen season. The points leader, twenty nine ahead of Pursue Elliott, finished 0.779 seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski.
«It`s superb to be Kyle Larson right now,» he said. In his last seven Cup starts, dating back to last season, Larson has posted finishes of 3-2-12-2-2-2-1.
It was Larson`s very first Cup win since last summer when he took the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway, which Fontana was modeled after.
Larson and Keselowski were also the winners of the very first NASCAR stages ever at Fontana. Larson led the field after the 60th-lap initial stage over Keselowski, and the pair traded places after the 120th-lap 2nd segment.
Being out front near the end of a race is nothing fresh to the 24-year-old Los Gatos driver. He`s has had the lead in all five races, but ultimately closed the deal at the two-mile superspeedway celebrating its 20th anniversary.
It was a successful weekend for Larson, who also took the checkered flag Saturday in the 300-mile Xfinity race.
Clint Bowyer, making his California debut for car holder Tony Stewart, came in third followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano, who embarked in the back of the 39-car field after not making qualifying.
«It was a battle, but this place is a lot of joy,» said Logano. «The track is so broad and tires mean so much. How crazy is it that we`re pitting with half-a-lap on our tires and we`re putting four more on. That`s pretty cool.»
Larson teammate Jamie McMurray was sixth with rookie Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Elliott rounding out the top Ten.
Jimmie Johnson, the defending Cup champ and race winner, finished 21st after also embarking in the back of the field. He moved up steadily but was involved in an early incident that sent him to the rear once again before moving back up.
Larson led seven times for one hundred ten laps, including the final six. There were a total of eight leaders but only Larson and Truex led more than twice and for one hundred eighty three laps.
«I was staying as tranquil as I could be, but also frustrated at the same time,» Larson said after climbing out of his No. Forty two Target Chevrolet. «It seems like every time I get to the lead at the end of one of these things, the caution comes out and I`ve got to fight people off on restarts.
«I made a mistake early in the race and lost a lot of track position sliding through my (pit) box, but they had awesome pit stops all day long. Good pit stops there at the end especially and our restarts were good. I spun my tires a duo of them and had to haul race Denny (Hamlin) and Kyle (Busch) into Turn 1, but we had a good last restart, got some clean air and came on to the win.»
There was a rash of yellow flags at the end of the 200-lap race. For the fourth consecutive year, the event extended into overtime but Larson, who was runner-up here in his two thousand fourteen rookie season, pulled away after the last caution period with two laps to go.
«I knew my pit team was indeed good, so I actually ran a little bit slower down pit road by one light just to be safe,» Larson said of his last pit stop. «I didn`t want to speed, I didn`t want to do anything stupid and we were able to get the hop there off pit road and line up on the outside, which was awesome.» Team possessor Chip Ganassi was ecstatic about a NASCAR win at a track he`s raced in open-wheel as well.
«I thought that race was never going to be over there at the end. I thought we were having a pretty clean day there `til the end,» he said. «You know, it`s just a culmination of a lot of hard work. Everybody said, ‘What is it this year? Why are your cars good? Why this, why that?`
«I keep telling in this business, it doesn`t take much. It doesn`t take much to be good. It doesn`t take much to be bad. Just made some puny switches over the winter in our organization. We attempted to look at places that need improvements and we make improvements.
«I think obviously a lot of it`s down to Kyle. I think he`s kicking off to mature in the series and learning what the cars will accept and what the cars won`t accept in terms of putting a weekend together, putting together practice, putting together qualifying, put together race practice, a race, pit stop after pit stop after pit stop, keeping your head in the game. I couldn`t be more satisfied for him.»
Keselowski`s high finish was a testament to the work of his Team Penske pit squad. He was involved in pair of incidents but recovered each time.
«I don`t know if we had anything for Kyle and those guys,» said Keselowski. «We were ripped up pretty bad. To get that kind of finish is respectable.
«Certainly we want to win. I felt like we had a shot to do just that. It just didn`t come together. That`s the way it goes sometimes when you have a 36-race season. You`re going to have some adversity and days that don`t go your way.
«That`s the way it was for us. But we made the most of it, so I`m proud of my guys.»