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Fresh off Eldora win, Kyle Larson "really excited" about Indianapolis
With victories now this season in both the NASCAR Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, Kyle Larson would love to finally add that elusive first Sprint Cup Series win to his resume this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jul 22, 2016, 12:00 AM
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Larson finally was able to check off a win on the dirt at Eldora Speedway Wednesday night and in dramatic fashion as he came from back from a lap down to win the Dirt Derby Truck series race over last year’s winner, Christopher Bell.
“I came close to winning this the first year – really close – and just weren’t able to get it done,” Larson said. “I thought we really came on in (Tuesday’s) second practice and showed we had the best truck.
“We got held a lap on pit road for causing that yellow but we came back out, got the ‘lucky dog’ and I knew we could get back to front.”
Larson, 23, now has four career Xfinity wins and two in Trucks but still lacks one in the Cup series, where he has competed fulltime with Chip Ganassi Racing since 2014.
After a slow start this season, Larson still remains in contention for a spot in the 16-driver championship Chase based on points and earned a career-best finish of second earlier this season at Dover, Del.
“We’ve gotten a lot better than we were in the beginning of the season, when we one of the worst cars on the race track,” Larson said. “In the last two months, though, we’ve come close and about the time of the Kansas race we had really turned it up and ran in the top-five most of that race.
“We went to Dover and came really close to winning that. In the All-Star Race, we came up just a couple of laps short there. The past few weeks we’ve had the speed in our Chip Ganassi Racing cars but I guess we just haven’t had the luck.”
After 19 races, Larson is currently 19th in the series standings – the highest he’s been since following the Texas race back in April.
Larson and his No. 42 Chevrolet team were among those who tested recently at Indy in preparation for this weekend’s Brickyard 400. In two previous races at Indy, he’s finished seventh and ninth.
“We had a good test at Indy – a really good test, I thought,” he said. “I’m really excited about this weekend. I know our team and Hendrick engines, they’ve got some new stuff coming. We’ll see how that goes. It seems like, for us, when we’ve spent a couple days at a track testing, we’re always pretty good when we go back to race.
“The (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) guys are always fast. We’ve just got to keep working hard but we have some good tracks coming up. We get back to Bristol here in a little bit; Watkins Glen – I’m always good on road courses.”
While the Brickyard race may have lost some of its luster in recent years, it still remains a favorite spot for drivers, including Larson.
“Running at Indy is such a cool experience; it’s got so much history and is also a place where Chip’s cars have run pretty good in the past,” he said. “Hearing the echo of the cars going down the front stretch, with the stands on both sides of the track, is unlike anything else on the circuit and just makes for a really unique experience.”
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