Kyle Larson has been the single most dominant driver in the 2024 Cup Series. He has secured four victories and sits atop the points table and is the favorite to win the regular season championship. But four more races remain in the regular season and this means more space for him to cause havoc. The upcoming 400-lapper in Richmond might be when he equals yet another NASCAR record that was set decades back.
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Geoff Bodine once drove the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports car that Larson pilots today. The icon secured four consecutive poles in short tracks between 1985 and 1986 and was the last driver to do so. Larson could be the next. He has secured pole positions in the last three short-track races and could equal Bodine’s record on Sunday. This contention is a small part of his mastery of tracks less than a mile.
He has brought in 170 points solely from short-track races this season. No other driver has scored higher. He has two wins, three poles, and eight top-5 finishes in the last 10 races. These numbers point to the obviousness that he will be the one to beat when the green flag waves this weekend. Larson will also be hot on form after winning the Brickyard 400 and having a scintillating Olympic break.
He got into sprint cars in the break and reached a few more victory lanes just for the sake of fun. He won the Ironman 55 fixture of the World of Outlaws series and the 29th Annual Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Winning has become a habit too hard to be done away with for Larson. He will aim to keep the flow going at the 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway.
Larson sets his goal for the rest of the regular season
With 28 playoff points, the Hendrick star is in prime position to be the regular season champion. But a job is not done until it is done. Four more races are left and he will have to be at his very best to make the most of them. He told the press recently, “We had a good run at Richmond earlier this year and want to continue that this weekend.”
“We’ve got four races left in the regular season and we want to make the most of them prior to the playoff stretch.” His last visit to Richmond had resulted in a third-place finish. He has a couple of victories on the short track, the latest of which came in 2023. The other races will be at Michigan, Daytona, and Darlington. They will all be crucial in deciding his fate for the 15 playoff points that come with being the regular season champion.
