A second-place finish for Kyle Larson continued his Auto Club Speedway mastery in Sunday’s Auto Club 400.
Larson trailed race winner Martin Truex Jr. across the finish line for the runner-up finish. After his win last year, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver has finished in the top two in three of his five career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at ACS.
“We had a lot of weird issues like vibrations and stuff that made us have to restart in the back and we would have to go back forward,” Larson said. “It always seemed like we would get to third or fourth and kind of stall out there.
“But it was still a very good day. The 78 (Truex Jr.) was really good and I think the 4 was probably the best car again although he didn’t get to race a whole lot. We are right there and we just have to continue to work hard.”
Larson was involved in an early incident with Kevin Harvick that resulted in Harvick hitting the outside wall, ending his chance at a fourth straight win. Larson was thankful he didn’t receive any additional damage in the incident for which Harvick took responsibility.
“We were racing really hard and I was better than him in three and four and he was better than me in one and two,” Larson explained. “I would side draft him down the front stretch and he would side draft me down the back stretch and I don’t know if he was just coming down to side draft me or what but we made contact and it spun his car to the right. So, you never want to make contact with anybody but all in all it was a good day for our DC Solar Chevrolet team.”
So while Larson is still in search of his first win of the season he’s feeling optimistic about the direction of the No. 42 team.
“Hats off to everybody at our race shop because they have done a great job of getting our Camaros up to speed quickly,” he said. “So I am having fun, but I would like to be one spot better though.”
