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Larson hopes strong run at Dover cures "long faces" at Ganassi

Kyle Larson has been disappointed with his season thus far and seen some “long faces” around Chip Ganassi Racing, but he believes the past two weeks have shown the organization’s potential.

Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

Action Sports Photography

Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota leads a restart
Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
The car of Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

Larson spent the final laps of Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway doing whatever he could to run down Matt Kenseth but at the same time try to fend of the advance of Chase Elliott.

The furious three-battle battle for the lead provided one of the most exciting finishes to a Dover race in years.

In the end, Larson came up just short in second, but his run combined with a solid performance the week before at Kansas leaves him encouraged.

“We’ve all had some long faces throughout the year and it’s been a struggle but I hope everybody realizes these last couple weeks that all of the hard work they are in putting in at the shop is paying off,” Larson told Motorsport.com

“We’re outside the top 20 of points and I feel like we’re kind of deserving of being outside the Top 20. We’ve had a lot of bad luck but we hadn’t had a whole lot of speed up until the last two or three weeks.

“The cars are good and the pit crew has been doing an amazing job. We aren’t losing spots on pit road and I’m coming to realize how important that is in the Sprint Cup Series.”

Larson’s team owner, Chip Ganassi, lauded the employees at his organization for providing cars with which Larson and teammate Jamie McMurray can contend for wins.

“Guys have dug deep, they’re working late, working hard, working long hours,” Ganassi said. “It’s down to the guys at the shop, the guys putting the cars together – that’s who’s doing the work.

“It was good. Kyle led (a lot of) laps and the guys at the shop have been working really, really hard.”

Sunday’s race was turned upside down with 46 of 400 laps remaining when a pile-up at the front eventually collected 18 cars.

Kenseth, Larson and Chase Elliott came away virtually unscathed and when the race restarted following a nearly 12-minute red flag to clean the track, the final battle began for the win.

“We’re were really good, better than Matt. A lot of cars got wrecked there near the end. I tried to be patient on the last restart and waited to see if he made some mistakes,” Larson said.

“He did make a couple of mistakes but it’s so hard to pass somebody on the bottom (of the track) here because they can suck down on your door and that can slow you down. I was probably a little too patient there (on the restart) because it allowed Chase to get by me.”

Larson remains in 21st position in points, 30 behind 20th place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Without a win, he will need most likely need to be at least in the top 16 of points to earn a berth in the championship Chase.

“It would be nice to be sitting here knowing I’m in the Chase. But we’ll keep working hard,” Larson said. “We got a lot of points to make up if we don't win a race before the Chase starts.”

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