Kyle Larson could be the first driver in over 30 years to win 4-straight at Michigan

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Kyle Larson in action during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, June 3, 2018, in Long Pond, Pa. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)
Kyle Larson in action during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, June 3, 2018, in Long Pond, Pa. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)

A win at Michigan would officially qualify Kyle Larson for NASCAR’s playoffs. It would also make him the first driver to win four-straight races at Michigan since Bill Elliott.

Larson enters Sunday’s race with three-straight wins at the 2-mile track. The only driver to win four-straight races at Michigan is Elliott, who swept both races there in 1985 and 1986. Outside of Elliott, the only driver to win three-straight races at the track is David Pearson, who won both races in 1972 and the first race there in 1973.

“What our team has been able to do at Michigan the last few races is pretty special, and I hope we can keep it up this weekend with another win,” Larson said. “We have had good cars there just about every year I’ve raced, and I think we’ve hit on some things recently that will have us taking another fast Chevy to Michigan this time around too.”

Larson has been — by far — the best Chevrolet driver so far in 2018. He’s the only Chevy driver in the top 10 in the points standings and would be even higher if it wasn’t for a points penalty his team received after Kansas, a race where he drove through the field multiple times.

Larson finished second at Pocono last weekend, his fourth-straight top-10 finish of the season. Someone asked him after the race if the top four finishers at Pocono — Martin Truex Jr., Larson, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick — would be the four drivers racing for the championship at Homestead.

Including Larson in that group is probably a bit premature. The three other drivers have combined for 11 of 14 wins in 2018. A Chevy driver hasn’t won since Austin Dillon’s last-lap Daytona 500 victory. Larson’s one of the “other” contenders for the title at this point in time. And he knows it.

“I don’t know, I think three out of the four have definitely been the best,” Larson said. “I think ‑‑ I would say me — I mean, I’m the only one that doesn’t have a win in the front four [at Pocono] … I think that three of those guys are definitely head over heels better than the rest of us, but I think from fourth to sixth or seventh best car, it’s pretty close.”

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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