Sunday’s NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway got off to an eventful start thanks to some wild weather.
Initially, the race’s start was bumped up by an hour in an attempt to avoid some bad weather coming through the area. Instead, the bad weather decided to arrive early too, forcing the race to be delayed until close to its original start time.
After Carson Hocevar spun out on the pace lap before the race could even go green, it was clear that conditions were going to be a factor.
Thankfully, the track dried out over the course of the race, turning what could have been a mess of an evening into a fun, extremely tactical night of racing. Kyle Larson, who finished the night in fifth place, broke down why he enjoyed his time in New Hampshire.
“It was a lot of fun. We knew [the track] was going to go through changes,” Larson said after the race. “While we were in the wet, you just try to manage your tire temps as it was drying. It was important. Once we went to the slicks, you’re trying to look for the patches of dry. I thought myself and Bell did the best job of that.”
Larson said that once the track worked its way back to simpler conditions, the race was like any other in Loudon.
“It was good to get the stage win there. From then on, it was just normal Loudon. I was pretty free. We made some good adjustments on it, but still, obviously need to be a little bit better. But a really good Loudon for us.”
Larson remains in the midst of an unusual dry spell, having not won a Cup Series race since May of last year. Still, his finish on Sunday was good enough to bump him into seventh place in the season-long points standings, keeping him within striking distance of a championship run with just one more race to go before the start of the Chase.
“Hopefully we can just continue to build on it,” Larson said of the finish. “Still have a lot of growth still left to get to where we’re leading laps consistently and challenging for wins. It’s good now these last two weeks to have a solid finish, just got to continue to work hard. We’ve been doing that for the past two years it seems, and eventually I think it will come around. If you can’t win them, then just try to be consistent.”
Watch: Larson breaks down wet-to-dry race track challenge at Loudon
Larson’s year has been quite confounding. He’s had at least three wins in each season since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, but has yet to celebrate in victory lane once this year.
That said, he’s been knocking on the door for quite some time. Sunday was his ninth top-five finish of the season, and his place in the standings proves how consistent he has been despite not taking the checkered flag.
It feels like a win is coming for Larson eventually. If he can time a hot streak for the start of the Chase, he could very well defend his title and take down the third championship of his career. If he succeeds, he’d be just the 10th driver in NASCAR history to go back-to-back.
Photos from New Hampshire – Sunday
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