NASCAR Fontana recap: Kyle Larson’s star continues to rise

Team owner Chip Ganassi’s affinity for winners is such that after one of his drivers takes a checkered flag, the man who owns teams in an array disciplines including NASCAR and IndyCar, has a special hashtag to mark the occasion.

That hashtag, #ILikeWinners, is likely to soon be a common sight on social media thanks to a prodigious 24-year-old who’s coming into his own and emerging as the breakout superstar many thought he would become.

When Ganassi surprisingly promoted Kyle Larson to the Monster Energy Cup Series in 2014 after just a singular season spent in the Xfinity Series, conventional wisdom suggested Ganassi was rushing Larson, a driver with roots in sprint car racing whose ability was such he had long been compared to the likes of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

During his rookie season Larson proved the naysayers wrong, finishing second three times along with five other top fives. A performance that signified he belonged in NASCAR’s top division with it seemingly not long before he fulfilled the weighty expectations placed upon him.

However, as promising as 2014 may have been, the following season was a letdown. Larson had only two top-five finishes and his average finish rose five spots. Were the doubters right, had Ganassi thrust his young driver into a role he wasn’t ready for?

That question Larson answered by scoring his first win in Aug. 2016 at Michigan International Speedway, then going on to finish 10th or better seven times in the final 12 races. In retrospect that first win and the subsequent way he closed out last season was just a preview of what was to come.

This season, Larson has been sensational. He nearly won the Daytona 500 before running out of fuel on the final lap, then followed with three consecutive second-place finishes. But the breakthrough occurred Sunday where Larson gave Ganassi the chance to use his favorite hashtag by winning at Auto Club Speedway, a race which saw Larson lead 110 of a possible 202 laps and showcase his growing maturity in keeping his composure through a series of late restarts that negated the advantage he held.

“He’s on a really nice roll,” said Brad Keselowski, who finished second Sunday. “… It’s impressive to me, not that he’s winning races and running up front, but that he’s been able to sustain it for a handful of weeks here in a row to start the season.”

When Larson was coming up through the ranks there were times when being heralded as the next Gordon or Stewart seemed like hyperbole, not a standard of excellence that he was capable of meeting.

“Everybody wants to compare these drivers coming up to Jeff or to Tony or this guy, that guy, whoever they want to compare to,” Ganassi said. “… These guys coming into the sport, you have to look in their totality. You have to look at their situation. You got to look at who the team is, who’s working on the car, who’s engineering the cars, who’s doing the pit stops.

“It’s not just the automatic come in and a hundred races later you’re winning races on a regular basis. I just think it takes a little more education than that today.”

Now, though, that ceiling — while still incredibly high — doesn’t feel unattainable. From the way he prepares throughout the weekend from practice to qualifying to the race, to his understanding of how a track changes over the course of a race, to making a commitment to raising his game by no longer steadfastly running the high groove when the bottom lane is better, Larson is proving to be every bit the once-in-a-generation star as projected.

“He’s starting to mature in the series and learning what the cars will accept and what the cars won’t accept in terms of putting a weekend together, putting together practice, putting together qualifying, put together race practice, a race, pit stop after pit stop after pit stop, keeping your head in the game,” Ganassi said. “I think he’s matured a lot in that manner.”

What remains to be seen is whether Ganassi can continue to provide his budding superstar with equipment that will allow Larson to showcase his skill set. Because while Ganassi treasures winning, the truth is that on the NASCAR side winning isn’t something Chip Ganassi Racing has done much of in recent years.

Instead, CGR has carried the deserved label of underachievers. A team having the necessary funding, personnel, resources, and drivers, yet could never establish itself as a perennial contender.

“In this business, it doesn’t take much,” Ganassi said. “It doesn’t take much to be good. It doesn’t take much to be bad.”

But a commitment to becoming consistent contenders that has been a year and a half in the making is paying dividends. That improvement isn’t just evident by Larson’s strong start, but also demonstrated by teammate Jamie McMurray having three top 10s this season and currently ranking sixth in the standings.

“I’m really fortunate to be driving really fast racecars right now,” Larson said. “Our cars are by far as good as they’ve ever been, really good at every race track right now.

“In the past, I had racetracks where I knew I would be good at. But right now we’re going to some tracks that aren’t great for me, and running up front. It’s a lot of fun to have that confidence in the race team, go to the racetrack, fight hard and run for wins.”

No disrespect to the 40-year-old McMurray, it is his teammate 16 years his junior that represents CGR’s future. Larson possesses the talent to elevate the organization to a spot among NASCAR’s elite and will do so if CGR can continue on its continued trajectory.

And if that happens, Ganassi will have ample opportunity to tweet out his favorite hashtag.