BROOKLYN, Mich. — Four times a bridesmaid in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Kyle Larson finally became the bride Sunday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway.
In his 99th career start, Larson broke a 99-race winless drought for Chip Ganassi Racing, taking the lead from fellow young gun and NASCAR Next alumni Chase Elliott on a restart with nine laps to go and holding Elliott’s last charge at bay to notch the win in the Pure Michigan 400.
In a weekend of firsts, the 24-year-old finished off a historic trifecta, with all three of NASCAR’s national touring series producing first-time winners on the same weekend for the first time in history.
Brett Moffitt won Saturday’s Truck race at Michigan, while Cup regular Michael McDowell accomplished a similar feat at Road America in the XFINITY Series.
However, Sunday was all about Larson, who also became the first ever NASCAR Drive 4 Diversity graduate to win at the Cup level.
“It was an awesome race for us,” an emotional Larson said. ” I was tearing up that whole last few laps, because I could feel that it was finally gonna be our day. This one’s for the Clauson family. We’re really missing him. We parked it for him, so that’s really cool. I’m really at a loss for words, but I had a great time today.”
“We had a lot of work to do during the first third of the race, but we got it done. We got messed up on that last pit stop and fell back to fourth. At that point I thought we were done, but we made it back and finally got one. It’s been a long road, but to finally have one is really special, especially before I hit triple-digits (in starts).”
The moment was even more special for team owner Chip Ganassi, who had not visited victory lane in a points-paying Sprint Cup race since Jamie McMurray’s win at Talladega in 2013.
“This win is really, really big,” Ganassi said. “We’ve been on the cusp (of the Chase) so many years. We got Jamie in there last year, and now to get Kyle in there … I’m kind of speechless right now.”
“We’ve been building for the last few years, and when he came on board, the team rallied around him. I can’t say enough about the job he’s done the last few years. It’s been a gradual coming up through the pack and I couldn’t be happier to see him finally get it done today.”
Larson led a race high 41 of 200 laps, but had a slow pit stop with 37 laps to go and watched helplessly as Elliott drove by him exiting pit lane, appearing to be set to avenge his excruciating loss from June in Michigan when he stumbled on a late-race restart.
However, a caution with 14 to go after Michael Annett blew a tire entering turn one changed the complexion of the finish, as Elliott’s lead would disappear and Larson lined up alongside for the final green flag of the day.
In a horrific case of déjà vu from June, Elliott spun his tires again and got jacked up by fellow rookie Ryan Blaney from behind, while Larson got a shove from home track hero Brad Keselowski on the bottom groove.
The Californian seized advantage of the opportunity and took over the top spot as Elliott fell back to third, never looking back from there.
Elliott’s effort was not without a glimmer of good news, as he led 31 laps on the day en route to the runner-up finish, but the second-generation driver was hard on himself after climbing from his car.
“I just made another mistake,” Elliott said. “I had two opportunities to get out front there and control the race, and I just let Kyle get a better start on me there at the end. I spun the tires and just … didn’t do my job right. It’s about as simple as that.”
“When the tires are spinning, you aren’t going forward and that’s what we were doing today. I just need to try and do a better job with my restarts, take away the positives and try to move on down the road, but it’s definitely unfortunate. I hate to let my guys down like that. They bailed me out a few times today, and I gave it right back. We’ll look at the positives and get to Darlington.”
Keselowski hung on for third after being passed by Elliott with seven to go, with Blaney and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top five.
Jimmie Johnson was sixth after leading 37 laps earlier in the day, while polesitter Joey Logano was 10th.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 4, 2016 with the 67th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500, the penultimate race before the Chase playoffs begin.
