Larson Looks to Continue Two-Mile Dominance at Auto Club Speedway

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor

Over the past year and a half, there has been no one better on the two-mile ovals than Kyle Larson and heading into this weekend’s race at Auto Club Speedway, the California native looks to keep his winning streak going.

Starting with the August 2016 race at Michigan, Larson and his No. 42 team have been unstoppable, winning the last four races on tracks two miles in length, including a win in last year’s Auto Club 400 and a sweep of both Michigan races in 2017. His dominance on these tracks shows even more when looking at his career win total, with all but one of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins coming on tracks of the two mile variety.

“Having a fast racecar is probably the most important key to any race, but we were lucky enough to have a really fast car last year at a lot of tracks, but especially here,” said Larson. “I felt like when we got to this race, throughout practice, I felt like I had the car to win. It felt like that was the best Cup car I had ever had to that point.  Was able to capitalize on it and get the win.

“I really enjoy this racetrack. It’s got a lot of different lanes to choose from.  You have a lot of tire fall off.  It’s just kind of a track that suits my driving style quite a bit.  I think that is why we have had a little bit of success here with a couple of Xfinity wins and the Cup win last year.  We are just running the Cup car this weekend, but we should be good.”

Through the first four races of the 2018 season, Larson has had some ups and downs with one top-five finish and two top-10 finishes, entering Auto Club Speedway ranked eighth in points.

In Friday’s first practice session of the weekend, Larson turned in the fifth fastest time with a lap of 38.350 seconds, 187.744 mph, as the team now turns their attention to qualifying later this evening at 7:15 pm Eastern.