Kyle Larson Finally Breaks Through for Himself, and Chip Ganassi Racing

After coming oh so close so many times, it finally happened for Kyle Larson this past weekend. The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing got by Chase Elliott late in the race to score his first career victory and end CGR’s 99 race winless drought.   

With eight laps to go at Michigan International Speedway, Larson got the lead as he was able to jump out ahead of Chase Elliott on the restart. He then held off Brad Keselowski, cruising to the win while Keselowski and Elliott battled for second.   

Once he got out front, Larson knew he was better than Brad Keselowski so he was happy he was passed him and knew he was going to win.   

“Then I started shaking, legs a little numb there for a couple laps. Yeah, then the last I think with two to go, I was starting to get choked up,” Larson said. “We worked really, really hard to get a win, and just haven’t done it. Finally all the hard work by everybody, hundreds of people at our race shop, people who have got me through to the Cup Series, it was all paying off.   It was pretty awesome. I couldn’t quite catch my breath there after I got out of the car because I spent two minutes screaming because I was so pumped up. It was pretty special and I’ll remember it forever.”

The Elk Grove, California native has won in many different series during his racing career, however he says this one feels different because it took him longer to finely get the win.

“Took me a couple months to win my first Sprint car race, four days after my 15th birthday,” Larson added.   “Took me a few months to win when I got into USAC. Took me a few years to win an Outlaw race.   This, after the way my rookie season started, coming close a few times, not getting it done, you can visualize the win that early in your career. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. But it just never happened.   This one’s different just ’cause of how long we had to wait and how much harder I’ve had to work for it. Like I said, it’s special because all the hard work’s paid off. “

Larson was very close to Bryan Clauson, who was tragically killed on August 7 in a racing accident. After he won, he paid homage to him by saying “Parked It” like Clauson always said after he won.

“Watkins Glen, knowing that morning we didn’t get any good news, that was really tough getting in the car there,” Larson quoted. “Bryan was going to race 200 times this year. He would want us to race. This is our job. We love doing it. He loved doing it. It’s not hard to get in a racecar. Especially we’re extremely sad, and still are sad, but after hanging out with the Clauson family, his fiancee Lauren at Knoxville, to see how strong they were being, really helps all of us. All of their close friends and stuff.

“Yeah, you hate it, you hate to see anybody go in racing, but especially somebody like Bryan that touched so many people, done a lot for a lot of people, charities and stuff like that. It’s good to be able to park it in Victory Lane, like he would have said. He didn’t like people doing burnouts and stuff like that, ’cause he wanted you to act like you’ve been to Victory Lane before. But I hadn’t been to Victory Lane before so I was going to do some burnouts.”