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Starting the WISE Power 400 from the 13th position to finish first, Kyle Larson believes that the starting position does not matter to win a race.
On Sunday morning, Kyle Larson's team discovered an ignition issue in the #5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The driver had to give up his starting position and move to the rear of the field at Auto Club Speedway. The defending champion, however, gave his best until the very last lap, and the entire field couldn’t stop him from taking to the victory lane.
Speaking about the starting position at Auto Club Speedway, Larson said:
“Yeah, thankfully the races are so long that if your car is good, it doesn’t matter how far back you start. We were able to get to like 12th pretty quickly. I was very pleased with that.”
Crossing all the hurdles to make his way to the front in the race, Larson was able to secure his second WISE Power 400 title. The 29-year-old took the lead from Daniel Suarez and held off Austin Dillon on the final lap to win his first Cup Series race of 2022.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver later revealed that he tried to keep himself ahead of the race from the beginning. He said:
“I wasn’t sure with the unknown of dirty air and stuff how hard it was going to be to get to the front, but myself and Joey were able to drive up there pretty quickly, and then just had to adjust on our car from there. We put ourselves in the game from early on and just had to kind of chip away at it and make good decisions, both on the pit box and behind the wheel, and we were able to do that today and execute a very good race.”
Kyle Larson joins Austin Cindric in provisional playoff place for Cup Series
Kyle Larson's win came at the 2022 Cup Series season's first-ever intermediate oval track. The win guarantees the car#5 driver a provisional playoff spot alongside Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric. As the season moves ahead, the Next Gen car will be tested on road courses, short ovals, flat intermediates, and dirt tracks.
Meanwhile, the NASCAR Cup Series will return next week to the 1.5-mile track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the Pennzoil 400 on March 6.
