Kyle Larson No. 5 team penalized by NASCAR at Atlanta after inspection

Kyle Larson is going to have a tough time. Drafting tracks are not his cup of tea. He almost always finds a way to find himself in one of the wrecks. But now, not having his pit stall selection or his car chief will be further setbacks.

During qualifying, Larson qualified relatively decently. He was P11, the second-best Hendrick driver and second-best Chevy in the session. His teammate Alex Bowman was P9. Larson has the speed he needs, but he will need luck if he wants to find the finish line tomorrow night in Atlanta.

Friday has been tough for not just Kyle Larson but NASCAR in general. A bit of lightning has kept popping up and delayed everything from qualifying to the Xfinity Series race.

Kyle Larson behind the ball to start in Atlanta

Most of the time, drivers and teams don’t worry too much about these penalties. Failing inspection twice and sacrificing your pit box doesn’t always matter. At EchoPark Speedway, it really could matter.

Drivers complain about how tight pit road can get. If someone enters their box crooked, it could block another driver into their box. There is also the risk of overshooting or misjudging your pit stop in the smaller box.

Perhaps to Larson’s credit, he was P3 in this race in Week 2 of the season. He finished behind Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar as the field wrecked on the last lap and the caution came out. It was about to be another three-wide finish until it wasn’t.

Kyle Larson might have figured something out about Atlanta. While he’s got a couple of things working against him, it appears that he has a car fast enough to contend on Saturday night.