Nobody in the NASCAR Cup Series has a way of dominating races like Kyle Larson, just as he did in this past Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson led 181-of-267 laps and won both Stages 1 and 2. He raced his way to victory lane for the second consecutive time at Las Vegas and for the 24th time in his Cup Series career. Larson’s dominance has been at a new level since joining Hendrick Motorsports ahead of the 2021 season; 18 wins, including 10 in his championship-winning season in 2021.
As Kyle Petty said in a NASCAR.com video on Monday, when Larson is on, there’s no stopping him.
“When Kyle Larson is on, like he was on yesterday, he forces other teams to raise their game. And when they do, and they’re not ready for it, they make mistakes. Everyone that challenged had a miscue or had a mistake at some point in time and left the race to Kyle Larson, although I can’t say they left the race to him because he just took the race. That’s the way it is.
“When Kyle Larson is on, as I said, he’s on. And he has been on since he’s been at Hendrick Motorsports. He has 18 wins in three plus years [and] one championship. The six previous years, he had six wins. That’s all he did.”
Kyle Larson creating a legacy at Hendrick Motorsports
Of the 36 other cars on the racetrack, only one stood a chance at taking the win away from Larson: Tyler Reddick. Reddick finished behind Larson at the end of Stages 1 and 2, as well as at the end of the race as Reddick made a charge to the front within the last 15 laps. Reddick got as close as one car length with three laps remaining but couldn’t execute the pass to steal the win from Larson.
“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage,” Larson said after the race, via NASCAR.com. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was going to time out where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end.
“Thankfully, [I] was able to air block him a couple laps and get him tight. I thought him and [23XI Racing teammate] Bubba [Wallace] were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen. But all in all, such a great job by this Hendrick Cars Chevy team and just their execution, pit road, restarts — all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back, swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”
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