He may not exactly say it, but if Kyle Larson could snap his fingers and go back in time, he’d probably prefer Atlanta Motor Speedway (recently renamed Echo Park Speedway) to go back to its old layout before it was reconfigured prior to the 2022 season.
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The new layout included moving the start/finish line, higher banking and a wider track layout to make the racing more like driving on superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega. In a sense, Atlanta is now more like a mini-Daytona or mini-‘Dega.
In 15 career Cup starts at the Hampton, Georgia facility located 20 miles south of Atlanta, Larson has a starting average of 8.9, but an average finish of 19.0. And surprising as it may seem, he still has yet to earn his first Cup win at the refurbished 1.54-mile “quad oval.”
Here’s the key difference: In his first eight Cup starts there from summer 2014 through the 2021 season (before reconfiguration), Larson earned two runner-up finishes and four top 10s, compiling a 12.875 average finish. But in seven starts since reconfiguration, Larson has just one top five finish (third in this past February’s race), a 13th place showing and wrecked out five other times (each finish was 30th or worse), giving him a 26.0 average finish.
“At first, I was a bit skeptical of (the reconfiguration),” Larson told Atlanta TV station 11 Alive. “I think we all really enjoyed the old Atlanta Motor Speedway and the surface and how it raced.
“I just was unsure of it but I would say since I made the transition to this style, I like it much better than Daytona and Talladega. It seems to be, just more fun. The cars are more of a handful of drive (but) you can actually race your way to the front, where Daytona and Talladega gets pretty gridlocked.”
But even though he likes the “new” Atlanta better, he still has yet to earn his first career win there in either Cup or Xfinity.
Larson comes into Saturday night’s race ranked second in the Cup standings, 54 points behind leader William Byron. But Larson is also tied with Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, with three wins each in the first 17 races this season.
Given that kind of success he’s had thus far this season, Larson is looking forward to Saturday night’s race — and maybe even finally getting that elusive first win.
“It would be cool, just getting a win on that style of racing would be good for me because it’s not been something I’ve been really successful at before, I haven’t had too many opportunities to win at that style of track,” said Larson, who also has never won at Daytona or Talladega.
“I work really hard at it and try to do my best to get better every time. I feel like we’re close, like we can do it, so it would be nice to finally reward myself and my team and sponsor with a win there. It’d be awesome,” he concluded.
