The upcoming weekend at the Bristol Motor Speedway will be interesting with Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson both attempting to do something special. Hamlin would try to secure three wins in a row following his victories at Martinsville and Darlington. Larson would be challenging him, while pursuing a perfect weekend — winning the Truck Series, the Xfinity, and the Cup Series races.
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It is Larson’s second attempt at a weekend sweep following the first try at Homestead-Miami in March. He won the Truck Series race on Friday at Miami and the Cup Series event on Sunday, but failed to do so in the Xfinity Series race on Saturday. This time, he hopes to check all three boxes to create history. Kyle Busch feels Larson can succeed this time around.
The Richard Childress Racing driver completed weekend sweeps in 2010 and 2017 (both at Bristol) and is the only driver to do so. Busch believes Larson was unlucky with the “variables” working against him in his Miami attempt.
“He just tried it at Homestead and came awfully close. Barring a restart late in the going, he had it. That’s what happens with the triples, man,” said Busch.
“There are so many variables that can come down to whether you get it or not. If somebody can beat Larson off of pit road on the final run of the Cup race, and he can’t pass them, that’s what happens in that one. But I’m sure he’ll go and do well, and so be it,” he added.
When Busch mentioned “awfully close,” he wasn’t exaggerating at all.
How Larson missed out on making history at Miami
Larson held a lead of 16.633 seconds with 7 laps remaining in the Xfinity Series race at Miami. But all his work was negated when Taylor Gray spun and forced a caution.
All five lead-lap cars pitted, and Larson chose to restart on the inside with Sam Mayer to his bumper. Austin Hill took the outside with Justin Allgaier behind him.
On the restart, both Larson and Hill spun their tires, allowing Allgaier to take the lead. The JR Motorsports driver went on to win the race.
Larson was understandably frustrated at the near-miss. He had led five times for 132 laps and been an absolute unit on the track. His anger was apparent in the post-race interview.
“I can’t go when my rear tires are off the ground. I know it looks like I choked another one away, but I did everything I thought I could,” Larson had said.
Larson went on to blame Mayer for lagging and slamming him from behind. Hopefully, this weekend will be more favorable to the No. 5 driver.
