Kyle Larson can finally see a possible clock in his future
Sunday's winner of the STP 500 wasn't the only Kyle who came away from the weekend thinking he's got a much better grip on how to get around Martinsville Speedway than he had coming into it.
Kyle Larson finished third in Sunday's Sprint Cup race, trailing only race winner Kyle Busch and second-place finisher AJ Allmendinger. His previous best finish at the track that hands out coveted grandfather clocks to its race winners was 19th -- and in four previous career starts, he finished 27th or worse the other three times.
Like the race-winning Kyle, Larson attributed at least part of his successful Sunday run to the fact that he also ran in Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at the .526-mile short track. Larson finished fourth in that race, which also was won by Kyle Busch.
"We had a really good Target Chevy," Larson told FOX Sports after starting 17th in Sunday's Cup race. "It was really fun this whole weekend to be competitive every time I was on the racetrack. Normally I'm very, very bad here -- so to finish in the top three feels like a win for me. Never would I have thought I would finish top three here. Now I feel I can maybe see a clock in my future."
Larson also attributed his Sunday run to two other factors.
First, He said he followed eight-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson around the track for much of the 500-lap race, carefully watching Johnson's preferred line and mimicking it.
"Today we ran well inside the top five, the top seven the whole race," Larson said. "I learned a lot. I spent a lot of time behind Jimmie Johnson and just kind of followed his tracks, and I got a lot better throughout the race."
Secondly, Larson credited crew chief Chad Johnston with ordering up a two-tire stop on the No. 42 Chevy's last trip to the pits, allowing him to gain valuable track position prior to the final restart with 12 laps to go.
"Chad did a good job, taking two tires at the end," Larson said. "Luckily we got lined up on the inside row (for the restart), and we were pretty good there. So hats off to everybody on this Target Chevy team. It's cool to get such a good finish. It's been a while since (team co-owner) Felix (Sabates) has been here, and we put on a good performance for him."
