Kyle Larson achieved three milestones for the first time on Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The first came at the end of the second stage when Larson won the stage, marking his first-ever victory on a drafting-style track.
The second accomplishment was simply finishing the race. Larson had failed to finish in five of his last six races at Atlanta since the track was reconfigured into a drafting circuit.
Larson’s third achievement was securing a third-place finish, his best result at Atlanta in its current configuration.
“It honestly feels great,” Larson said. “It would feel a lot better if we had won, but just finishing a race here and making it to the third stage feels good. The battle was fun, and it was very entertaining from my seat tonight. We were in contention, like we usually are, and we just made it to the finish.”
Larson, who was leading at the white flag, found himself side-by-side with Christopher Bell, who surged to his outside as they entered Turn 1. By Turn 3, Larson was caught three-wide with Bell and Carson Hocevar, who forced his way into the middle. Larson was third when a caution came out on the final lap.
“I feel like if I had stayed in the top lane, Bell wouldn’t have gotten to my outside,” Larson said. “He probably would’ve just pushed me, maybe cleared me, and gotten to the inside. But I’m not sure. I’ll need to study it more from different angles.”
This performance came just a week after Larson’s frustration at the Daytona 500, where he has never finished in the top five in 22 starts. He also has only two top-five finishes in 20 starts at Talladega Superspeedway. Jeff Gordon mentioned last weekend that Larson seemed frustrated, but this result was an improvement, though Larson noted that Atlanta is “totally different” from Daytona and Talladega.
“I wouldn’t say it gives me confidence,” Larson said. “But I do feel more confident here, even though this is my first finish here. Handling plays a bigger role, so it’s not all about luck and picking the right lane like it is at Daytona. Last week, I was making the wrong lane choice most of the time. But tonight, there were still times I felt like I screwed myself, and others I was just around were suddenly in the top eight. It’s always changing, and you have to adapt.”
Larson also felt that having more control over the moves he made helped his performance on Sunday.
“All of us are in more control here,” Larson said. “It’s more fun. Daytona and Talladega suck. Like, they suck.”