But his Chevy fell too far behind on a slow pit stop to catch a fleeing Chase Elliott, who was also looking for his first career victory.
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With Brett Moffitt winning in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at MI and Michael McDowell prevailing in the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. – both on Saturday – Larson’s triumph capped the first weekend in NASCAR history that produced first-time winners in all three national series.
Buescher’s cushion isn’t quite secure with three races remaining until the Chase, but a 13-point edge is a pretty good foundation to build on.
The Pure Michigan 400 came down to the last 10 laps and came between two rookies that had to get to victory lane to keep their chase hopefuls alive – Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Kyle Larson pushed out win-less Ryan Newman, who now sits 15 points out of the last playoff spot.
That’s how quickly things change with The Chase picture. Larson has two career starts at Darlington, and finished in the top 10 in each from the 16th and 17th starting positions.
As those final laps wound down and it became apparent to Larson that – barring something unforeseen – he would finally win, tears came to his eyes. The victory snapped a winless streak of almost three years for Ganassi Racing, and Larson, of Japanese-American descent, becomes the first alumni of NASCAR’s “Drive For Diversity” program to go on and triumph at the sport’s highest level.
Brad Keselowski, who finished third in his No. 2 Penske Ford, was 25 when he first tasted victory and was among the first drivers to congratulate Larson.
Elliott took runner-up honors. “I’m really proud of what that can mean for the future”. With this victory he makes the Chase.
The same can be said for Chris Buescher who has a win at Pocono earlier this month. “It’s been a rough few years”. I also made a mistake early on in the race. “Kudos to my guys for keeping their heads down and working at it and getting it fixed”.
“I think it’s a small improvement in showcasing driver talent to be able to win races”.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver chimed in on Elliott and the letter on Monday, telling the young phenom to stop stressing so much and have more fun.
A day after one of the most demonstrative victory celebrations in at least a decade, Larson seemed sheepish about the exuberance he showed at Michigan International Speedway. Carl Edwards is the defending race victor. We’ve been working really hard. He came on board and did a great job. Just a little disappointed. If we back out the three restrictor-plate races and the three races with the new low downforce package, a Gibbs auto has won 10 of the 18 events. “We were right there, though, just a notch behind”. “We’ll figure it out”.
“We have to dig deep”, Ganassi said. The vehicle was tight then it was loose, but really just lacked the speed that the leaders had for the most part. The track had lost its traditional Labor Day date several years ago but now has it back and this time the sanctioning body has made it even better by moving the start of the race back so it can be contested under the lights out of the extreme SC heat.
Last week, it was veteran driver Kevin Harvick who earned the victory for the bowtie brand.
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Trevor Bayne finished 24th and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
