For quite some time, a win at Darlington in the Southern 500, considered one of the crown jewel races in NASCAR, evaded Kyle Larson. He had come close to taking the checkered flag in the past, with three 2nd place finishes in a row and a couple of 3rd place finishes to his name. But as we know now, he finally won this past Sunday.
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However, his first, long-awaited win at Darlington may not have come this year either if not for one big moment in the race, a big mixup from which Kevin Harvick came out worse. Harvick, who was one of the fastest cars on the day, was coming down the pit road along with William Byron and Larson was to follow too.
But an incident between Ryan Newman and Tyler Reddick brought out a caution because of which Larson and Byron decided not to pit considering the rules around pit stops during cautions. But Harvick had committed to the pit road, because of which he was penalized, because of which Larson got a big advantage, because of which he won.
Kyle Larson admits Kevin Harvick’s misfortune ended up helping him
During the post-race press conference at Darlington, Larson and Daniels were asked about the pit-road mixup involving Reddick, Byron, and Harvick which ended up costing the #4 driver dearly, but helped Larson eventually win the race. The Hendrick driver claimed that from his point, he was fourth and Harvick was “really good” during that run. Then he got the call to come for a pit stop and saw both Harvick and Byron also pulling down.
“I was going to follow them. It looked like Reddick was just going to have to pit the next lap, got caught late. Then as I was pulling down, I saw, I think, Newman spinning, so I was like, I think I need to stay out, so I stayed out,” Larson said.
“Thankfully it worked out. I guess William was able to get back out before committing to pit road, but I’m guessing Harvick being so close, he probably didn’t have any time to react to it, and yeah, took him out.”
Larson added that for him, it was pivotal because he went from fourth to second, and following a good pit stop, he came out in the lead with 40 laps to go, and from then on, he led the race to the checkered flag.
Cliff Daniels believed it would’ve been hard to pass Harvick had he gotten the lead
Adding to his driver’s point, Cliff Daniels claimed that at Darlington, there were four or five cars that would’ve been hard to pass had they gotten the lead, and Kevin Harvick was one of them. “To have one less of those cars was nice,” Daniels claimed.
Having said that, the crew chief added that he hates the misfortune of the #4 team. Daniels claimed that he enjoys racing with Rodney Childers and Harvick, but nevertheless, it was a big moment for them in the race. “It set us up to be second coming down pit road, have a good pit stop, come out with the lead, and then there’s still a couple of good cars behind us, just not quite as many,” he described.
In the end though, Harvick’s loss was Larson’s gain. He is now in the next round of the playoffs, while Harvick would hope to bring the same speed and some better luck at Kansas on Sunday.
