Yahoo Autos Kyle Larson Wins at Las Vegas
Whether the Fox broadcast had any interest in discussing it or not, the headline of today's race is the winner. Kyle Larson, suspended through the end of the 2020 season after being caught using a racial slur during an iRacing event, is not just back in NASCAR, but back to winning races.
Before that, though, was the race. Like almost every other race of the COVID-19 era, today's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway started with a grid set without qualifying. That meant Kevin Harvick, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver who dominated so much of the 2020 season before missing the championship race at Phoenix, started on pole.
It was the last good piece of news for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Harvick suffered damage early, and, by the time the field re-started after a competition caution at lap 25, he had already fallen out of contention. He would finish a dismal 20th, leading a Stewart-Haas team expected to contend for a championship but unable to place any of their four cars in the top half of the field.
With SHR a non-contender, the field was open for a race between the other three giants of the current NASCAR scene: Hendrick Motorsporst, Penske Racing, and Joe Gibbs Racing. Chase Elliott led for Hendrick Motorsports early, but Penske's Brad Keselowski beat him out for the lead before the end of the first stage. Elliott suffered some damage in the first stage and spun early in the third stage, relegating the series champion to 13th in this race.
This opened the door for his teammate, Larson, to comfortably out-run Keselowski and JGR's Denny Hamlin to win stage 2. He moved to a quick lead in stage 3, and he never really looked back. Even missing pit entry before his final green flag stop, a move that would generally leave a leader losing two or three spots, was not enough to slow his day. Larson then ran away from Keselowski over the last forty laps, winning his first race for Hendrick Motorsports in his fourth attempt with the team.
Larson, of course, is now famous for something entirely unrelated to his on-track career. A cloud is following his career, one that may never actually fade. He was fired from Chip Ganassi Racing in April of last year, the direct result of his use of a racial slur on a hot mic during an iRacing event held earlier that month. He was reinstated by NASCAR in October after publishing a blog detailing what he claimed to be a growth in understanding, and was hired at Hendrick Motorsports to succeed Jimmie Johnson a few days later.
Larson's car was sponsored today by HendrickCars.com, effectively indicating that Hendrick Motorsports was not able to sell coverage for this specific race to any sponsor outside of the company. There is more to the story, and his supposed personal development is a welcome addition to a NASCAR grid that has gone through a separate public reckoning with its history of racism while he was gone, but the ultimate result is this: Larson was suspended for his actions, and, at the end of the suspension, was rewarded with a promotion, signing with a much better team that seems content to pay out-of-pocket for him to race with them.
None of this was discussed at any length on today's NASCAR on Fox broadcast, which instead chose to focus on his car's livery, a tribute to team owner Rick Hendrick's late son, Ricky.
For a general audience, Larson's name may be synonymous with his hot mic moment for years to come. In NASCAR circles, whether or not more outside sponsorship comes, it seems to have already been determined a non-issue. Larson is in a great car, remains exceptionally quick, and is once again a NASCAR Cup Series race winner. He will be in the playoff later this year, and, come late November, he will have a great shot to win his first championship.
Larson's win also means that NASCAR has had four winners through its first four races. Its fifth, the regular season race at Phoenix Raceway, will be run next weekend. This is the only race at Phoenix before the championship-deciding race in November, so this is a very important event for those teams on the grids with serious hopes of winning a title.
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