Late-race contact robs Larson of shot at Charlotte win

That was the case on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway where Larson battled back from two self-inflicted miscues in the pits and contact with another competitor in the closing laps before salvaging a 10th-place finish. 

Despite Larson’s issues on pit road and a less than perfect car for the final run of the race, he picked up 38-points and moved to second in the Monster Energy Cup Series standings. 

“The damage made me a little nervous,” Larson said. “But Daniel (Suarez) got a good restart behind me and got to my outside and was on my door pretty hard. I got loose and lost a bunch of ground. 

“I felt like I had a car to win. I made a mistake on pit road early. We rebounded from that. And then we had a costly mistake late and somewhat rebounded; but then those last two restarts didn’t go my way.”

Larson started 10th and quickly moved up through the field. He was eighth after the first 20 laps and seventh when the competition caution was called on Lap 35. Larson missed his pit box during the Lap 37 stops and returned to pit road on the next lap. He dropped to 31st. Over the next 50 circuits, Larson soldiered on to a fourth-place finish in Stage 1. 

Larson held onto fourth-place following pit stops between the segments and raced his way to third. When Kyle Busch wrecked on Lap 136, Larson entered the pits third but exited seventh. He moved back to fifth on the Lap 141 restart, but finished seventh in the stage. 

After pitting, Larson restarted sixth for the final run. He was up to third by Lap 200 and remained there when the leaders pitted for green-flag stops on Lap 226. He cycled out to third, passed Harvick coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 243 and set his sights on race leader — and eventual winner Martin Truex Jr. 

“I felt like we’ve been better than the No. 78 (Truex) the past two weeks,” Larson said. “Last week was probably the first time in a long time he hasn’t been the most dominant. And then, he definitely wasn’t dominant today. I feel like the No. 4 (Harvick) and the No. 18 (Busch) and I were better than he was. Their team has executed really good.” 

By Lap 250, Larson trailed Truex by .359-seconds. Larson took the lead out of the pits on Lap 268 after David Ragan spun to trigger the seventh caution. He led 12 laps before Busch wrecked again on Lap 279. Larson held a 2.5-second at the time, but his right rear tire carrier tripped over the air hose. By the time the team recovered, Larson dropped to 11th. 

“They’ll be fine,” Larson said. “They’ve been one of the best pit crews all year. Like I said, I made a mistake on pit road early and then it is what it is. We were able to fight hard all day long, which is good.”

Larson climbed back to the top-five, but when Kurt Busch lost control of the No. 41 Ford on Lap 332, he slid up the track and caught the No. 42 Chevy. Larson remained on the track and held on to finish 10th. With his 19th top-10 finish of 2017, Larson moved to within 34-points of leader Truex.

“A lot of fight, but it was a disappointing finish,” Larson said. “I made a mistake early on pit road, totally missed my pit stall and then we were able to cruise to the front pretty easy and then got to lead a little bit and had the mistake there late.  Disappointing, but we fought hard.”