Kyle Larson shares a major drawback that foiled his passing attempts at Richmond

Kyle Larson charged from the back to finish an impressive sixth at Richmond Raceway, but the No.5 driver credited the result to 'great' strategy calls instead. He explained how he was 'too tight' during restarts and traffic, which forced him to overcompensate and scrub his tires.

Saturday's Cook Out 400 saw faster tire wear due to softer option tires introduced by Goodyear. Race strategies lately have been all about fuel mileage and maintaining track position, but none of those were a concern at Richmond, as tires were falling off in as little as 20 laps.

Notably, cars were able to pass on equal tires as well, which was another step up from recent races. This was evident in the closing stages when Larson's teammate, Alex Bowman, ran down Ryan Blaney on equal tires, but the 33-year-old seems to think otherwise.

In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, the Californian had this to say about his passing difficulties.

"Yeah, on equal tires, it was really difficult to pass. I felt like my team did an amazing job with our strategy today in every stage of the race. Without the great calls, we definitely wouldn’t have finished up here."

"I thought restarts and stuff in traffic, I felt like I was too tight in the center, and then it would just kind of beat my stuff up. We short-pitted early in the race and then went long in the second and third stages and I felt like that allowed me to take care of my tires better; come out in fresher air and just not stress the tires too badly. It helped us on the long run, for sure," he added.

Kyle Larson's P6 finish was a strong recovery from his 30th-place start, adding to his impressive run of results at short tracks this season. He previously took the top step at Martinsville and Bristol, the latter of which saw the least tire wear and helped him hold his lead, while racing behind him was stagnant, and passing proved nearly impossible.

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Kyle Larson believes his rivals still view him as a 'threat'

Kyle Larson has faded from his strong run early in the season, but has racked up a handful of top-10s now and then. He finished as the runner-up at Indianapolis and came in fourth at Dover. He qualified third at Iowa but finished in 28th place. Watkins Glen was a further step back as he battled a brake failure to finish dead last and several laps down.

Nonetheless, the Hendrick Motorsports driver is confident in how he and the No. 5 team are perceived among his peers.

"I think everybody looks at us even you know when we haven't been as strong here lately that you know we're still a threat you know so that gives you confidence," he said via Frontstretch ahead of the Cook Out 400 [1:38 onwards]

Kyle Larson's HMS teammate William Byron has won the regular season championship with a race to spare. Larson sits fourth in points and is among the top-3 in the playoff standings.