kyle larson Tag

By NASCAR Wire Service It’s early in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, but it looks like the ultra-talented Kyle Larson is poised for a breakout year. He led on the final lap of the DAYTONA 500 before running out of gas and has finished runner-up in the last two races. Dating back to last season’s penultimate race at Phoenix Raceway, Larson boasts three runner-ups and a third-place finish in his last five starts. On Sunday, the No. 42 Chevrolet driver hopes to notch his first win ofRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Three races into the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Larson is starting to assert himself as a bona fide championship contender. At 24 years old, the driver in his fourth full-time season on the circuit can’t even legally rent a car at most rental companies, but he is driving like a seasoned pro so far this year. Sunday in the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Larson rolled off from the fifth starting spot, and on the first run of theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – In a race whose aftermath left hometown driver Kyle Busch with a bloody forehead, Martin Truex Jr. passed the faltering car of Brad Keselowski on the white-flag lap and cruised to a sweep of all three stages in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As Truex approached the checkered flag to win a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time this season and the first time at LVMS, Joey Logano’s Ford slid up into Kyle Busch’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway wasn’t a drag race, but lane choice proved critical to Joey Logano’s 28th NASCAR XFINITY Series victory in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Choosing the top side for a restart on Lap 196 of 200, after Ty Dillon’s spin on Lap 192 necessitated the ninth and final caution of the afternoon, Logano cleared Kyle Larson off Turn 4 after an intense side-by-side battle and pulled away to win by .602 seconds.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Thanks to the unintentional generosity of the dominant driver in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, opportunistic Brad Keselowski won the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Kevin Harvick led 292 of the 325 laps at the 1.54-mile track, but a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 311 sent him to the back of the field for the final restart. That gave Keselowski the chance he needed, and on Lap 319 he surged past KyleRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – His car damaged in a wreck on the backstretch and held together with tape, Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on the final lap of the 59th Daytona 500 on Sunday and took the checkered flag in the Great American Race as a capstone to a checkered career that has trended upward since Busch joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. In a race that featured the first test of a new three-stage race format in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series—and featuredRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer At restrictor plates races, including the Daytona 500 always expect the unexpected. That’s exactly what most Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers, including Kyle Larson, were thinking as they were about to experience stage racing for the first time. In qualifying, Larson put his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS 16th on the grid. This put Larson eighth on the grid in the second Can-Am Duel. He finished ninth in a relatively uneventful race. Larson started his Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates in the 16thRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For much of the second Can-Am Duel at Daytona, it looked like it would be Dale Earnhardt, Jr following the lead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott to score the win after qualifying on the front row for the Daytona 500, but Denny Hamlin had other plans as he was able to execute a late race pass to take the lead and the win. “It was great. Great car. Got a great push there for Austin (Dillon). We worked really well together that entireRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor It’s that time of the year again. After a long offseason, NASCAR is back in action for the 2017 season with the running of the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona, an annual exhibition race that kicks off two weekends of racing activity at the World Center of Racing. The Advance Auto Parts Clash, which is scheduled for an 8:00 pm ET start on Saturday night, has held various names over the years, from starting as the Busch Clash beginning in 1979 through 1998, whenRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Season for 24 drivers. We will release one driver preview per day over a 24-day stretch. Age: 24 Years in Cup: 3 Career Wins: 1 Biggest Accomplishment: Cup win at Michigan (2016) Expectations are a hard thing to live up to sometimes. That was the case for Kyle Larson over the first two years of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career. Although the California native showed flashes of living up to the hype heRead More