NASCAR Cup driver Larson vows to work on restarts after Dover loss
Kyle Larson says he needs to improve his late-race restarts after losing the lead at Dover and taking a "disappointing" second place, his fifth of the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series
Larson is currently second in the Cup standings and took his only win of the campaign at California in March, but the Chip Ganassi Racing driver looked set for a second at Dover.
He led 241 of the 400 laps before Jimmie Johnson overtook him on the restart with three laps to go David Ragan's accident, resigning Larson to second despite having prepared for a late caution.
"I knew we would stay out if we had a caution and it happened," he said. "I just didn't execute.
"It's disappointing. I run second all the time, all the time.
"In a lot of them, I'm leading coming down late in the race. I've just got to get better on those restarts on old tyres."
The 24-year-old added that he had no response to Johnson's superior restart.
"Jimmie did a good job on the restart, a lot better job than I did," he said.
"That's why he's a seven-time champion. He has a 'golden horseshoe' somewhere and he's really good at executing.
"I've just got to get better at that."
Knowing he had less grip than those behind and having struggled at earlier restarts, Larson says he "tried taking off using not a lot of throttle" but still got jumped by Johnson.
"I spun my tyres pretty bad," he said.
"I knew we were both going to spin pretty bad. I wasn't getting good launches [on restarts] all day long."
The two-time NASCAR race winner believes he would have won the race without the late caution.
"I felt like we were on defence the whole race," he said.
"Even though I led a lot of laps it felt like we were on defence a lot of the time - we'd be on two tyres when everyone else was one four, or we took just two left-side tyres.
"We needed to stay green at the end. I thought we were a lot better than Jimmie was at the time and then a lapped car in front of me blew a right-front [tyre]."
Darrell 'Bubba' Wallace to make NASCAR Cup debut with Petty
NASCAR Pocono: Ryan Blaney takes maiden Cup victory
IMSA champion Jarvis to contest full ELMS season with United Autosports
Reigning IMSA Sportscar Championship title-winner Oliver Jarvis will contest the European Le Mans Series with United Autosports alongside Formula 2 convert Marino Sato, in addition to the World Endurance Championship.
20 years on: Porsche’s 911 GT Daytona 24 Hours giant-killing relived
IMSA’s new GTP class for LMDh cars had a more auspicious debut last weekend than the Daytona Prototypes that arrived in 2003. Back then, they were humbled by a GT Porsche 911, which won the Floridian sportscar classic by nine laps.
Entries open for the 2023 Williams Autosport Engineer of the Future Award story
Entries have opened for the 2023 Williams Autosport Engineer of the Future Award, with budding motorsport engineers invited to apply for the revamped prize.
What really happened when F1 drivers went on strike?
Being a Formula 1 driver is one of those dream jobs, but that doesn't mean everything always runs smoothly.
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
Saddled with uncompetitive Minardi machinery, Tarso Marques didn't manage to score points in his three partial seasons of Formula 1. But now the Brazilian has the chance to show what he can do in NASCAR, and explains the story of his comeback with new Cup Series entrant Team Stange
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
After holding his nerve and hip-checking his team-mate on the run to the line, Austin Cindric made a perfect start to life as a full-timer in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning the Daytona 500. Here's how the Penske Ford man emerged first across the line in the first points-scoring race for the much-anticipated Next Generation cars
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup season as an all-new fleet of cars take to the track for the first time. Ahead of this weekend's Daytona 500, our experts explain what you need to know
How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of its Next Gen arrival
The NASCAR Cup kicks off with the Daytona 500 this weekend, but a major overhaul and a subsequent mountain of work has been required to be ready for the arrival of the Next Gen cars
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson’s journey to the 2021 NASCAR Cup title comes straight from the Hollywood blockbuster scripts. While Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines for both the right and the wrong reasons
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup Series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.