Everyone likes to see a good finish to a race. Especially Denny Hamlin. He had a little something to say after Kyle Larson’s win in the Shriners Children’s 200. Larson drove that No. 10 Kaulig Racing car as hard as he could and came away with his first win at Darlington.
Stepping down to the NASCAR Xfinity Series isn’t always easy. Even Larson’s win today wasn’t easy. He did have to overcome a pit road speeding penalty that put him at the rear of the field. By the time the race was over, he had done about all a driver could do. And he got a new trophy in the process.
Denny Hamlin was like the rest of us and watched the race from a spectator’s point of view. From his perspective, this is exactly what NASCAR should aspire to in all of their series. He loved what he saw on the track and gave a big congrats to Larson on the win.
“The secret to this great racing recipe has been passed down from generation to generation,” he tweeted.
“When you have lap time fall off it lets the stars shine. Puts the driving in their hands. One thing you didn’t question today was who won, the car or the driver. Congrats [Kyle Larson].”
I mean, you can’t really argue with his point. He knows what he’s talking about and he’s made it clear on his podcast that tires are a big point of contention. NASCAR wants the best product on the track but it has to work with groups like Goodyear and the manufacturers to actually change the on-track product.
Why was Kansas so good? Tires got worn out and lap times were different. Why was this Xfinity Series race so good? For the same reason.
Kyle Larson pulls a Denny Hamlin move
If you put the last lap of last week’s Cup race against this week’s Xfinity race, you would see a lot of similarities. Much like Denny Hamlin did last week to him, Kyle Larson knew that John Hunter Nemechek was loose. Larson knew he had a faster car. And, he knew what to do to get Nemechek even more loose.
These two drivers not only battled each other, but they also fought the walls of Darlington, too. If the No. 10 doesn’t get bounced off the wall as hard on the straight stretch, who knows who wins that race? It was fixing to be a Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven-style finish.
Despite a second stage that was muddied with cautions, the Shriners Children’s 200 was a solid race. Throwback Weekend is always a ton of fun and when you can put on a race for the history books during it, that makes it even better.
While it would have been awesome to see them race o the line side-by-side, this was about as good as it gets in NASCAR. Excellent finish, Nemechek holds on for P5 after the official results came out. And another race proving Denny Hamlin has been right all along.
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