Many of the planned strategies in Sunday’s race went awry with seven cautions in the first 41 laps and that prompted Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels to run Larson as long as possible in the final stage before making his final stop.
Once Larson finally stopped, he cycled into eighth in the lineup but with much fresher tires he sliced through the field to take the lead with eight of 110 laps to go.
From there, Larson ended up taking the checkered flag by 4.258 seconds over Michael McDowell when last year’s race winner Martin Truex Jr. ran out of fuel on the final lap while running second.
“I didn’t know what we were doing as far as strategy,” Larson said after the race. “I was just out there banging laps away. I don’t know, we study all the strategy, but it’s like doing homework. I don’t really know what I’m looking at.
“I was like, ‘Well, man, these guys are going to have to pit another time maybe.’ Then we said we had to go race and pass these guys, I got a bit nervous. I knew I’d be quick from the get-go but I thought once the tires would come up to temp it would even off too much.”
Larson said he was aided by Truex’s efforts to run down Buescher for the lead.
“Thankful that we had enough grip. Thankful, too, that those guys got racing and Martin never got clear really to where I could get stuck in third and that really saved the race. I thought, too, once he got the lead, I’m like, ‘Man, I hope he doesn’t have somebody to judge off of here into (Turn) 4 and he misses the apex’, and sure enough, he did, and I had a big run.
“Just an awesome, awesome race car. Just cool to win at home, drink some wine here in a little bit and go celebrate.”
It’s the third win of the 2024 season for Larson and 26th of his career and second at his home track. Larson now has 20 wins since joining Hendrick Motorsports in the 2021 season.
Truex was the first to catch leader Chris Buescher with nine laps to go and moved into the lead exiting Turn 11, but the much quicker Larson easily navigated around Truex to reclaim the top spot on lap 102.
Buescher ended up third, Chase Elliott fourth and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were A.J. Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell land Todd Gilliland.
Truex ended up 27, the last car on the lead lap.
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