NASCAR: Who’s Hot And Who’s Not Heading Into Kansas Speedway

USA Today Sports

HOT – Kyle Larson

It’s hard to say that Larson is anything other than on fire right now. Since finishing 43rd in Michigan (which ultimately crushed his chances of making the 2014 chase) Larson has finished no worse than 12th over the last six races. In the last three races (all chase races) Larson has run 6th, 2nd and 3rd. With seven races to go in the season and Larson running the way that he is, it’s hard to imagine that he isn’t going to steal a win away from one of the chase drivers. It’s a shame that Larson had the poor showing a Michigan and wasn’t able to makeup the lost points in the next three races before the chase began. Had Larson made the chase and had this type of success even more people would be talking about him right now. When the season began all of the talk was centered around Austin Dillon but Larson has by far been the class of the rookie field and should cruise to Rookie of the Year honors. A win in in the last seven races would be huge for Larson and his team because the pressure of winning their first race would be gone and that would be one less potential obstacle for 2015. It’s hard not to believe that 2015 could be a special year for Larson and the No. 42 team and to think that many fans critiqued moving him to Sprint Cup before the season began.