Lap after lap a dogged Kyle Larson hounded leader Matt Kenseth during the closing stages of Sunday’s NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway.
Kyle Larson challenges Matt Kenseth for Dover win, falls just short
Larson finished two-tenths of a second shy of earning his first career win.
Repeatedly Larson would tap Kenseth’s bumper or drive down underneath and then alongside the 44-year-old who is nearly twice Larson’s age (23), but each attempt Kenseth was able to repel. As all this unfolded, Larson also had to keep a hard-charging Chase Elliott at bay
The battle extended over the final 35 laps with Larson appearing quicker than Kenseth, who was on older tires than Larson. That advantage of being on fresher tires gave Larson reason to think he would eventually pass Kenseth, but Larson’s pursuit of a first-ever win fell short by less than two-tenths of a second (.188).
“I could see Matt was pretty loose in front of me,” Larson said. “I was just waiting for him to make a mistake, and he did make a couple of mistakes, but it’s so hard to pass somebody on the bottom here because they can suck down on your door on exit and slow you down.
“I was trying to do all I could do to get by him without getting into him.”
On more than one occasion Larson could have pushed Kenseth aside, instead he opted for patience. That patience may have cost him his first win Larson admitted afterward.
But wanting to race Kenseth clean and not incurring a reputation as a dirty driver overrode any thoughts Larson had of using force to get by. The second-place finish was Larson’s fourth in 87 career starts.
“I’m still early in my career, so I don’t want to make anybody mad or make any rivals,” Larson said. “I try to race everybody with respect. Feel like I do a good job of that. I don’t know if I would have done anything different with anybody else.
“I didn’t want to do anything dirty. I respect Matt Kenseth a lot. He’s definitely in my eyes the cleanest racer out there. He always races me with respect. I try to do the same with him.”
That respect didn’t go unnoticed nor unappreciated.
“He raced me really, really hard, but clean at the same time,” Kenseth said. “He’s a great race car driver. To me it doesn’t even seem right that he hasn’t won yet. He’s got a bunch of victories in front of him for sure. He’s a really, really clean, hard racer, and a fast learner.”
Larson is hopeful Dover represents a turning point for what has been a trying season, with Chip Ganassi Racing struggling to provide Larson and teammate Jamie McMurray with consistently fast cars. But Larson was running in the top five before being swept into a wreck not of his doing a week ago at Kansas Speedway, and on Sunday led 85 laps.
“It’s been really hard to stay positive,” Larson said. “But as it’s showing now, I think everybody has stayed positive, dug really deep to build better stuff. Just keep working hard.”
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