NASCAR Cup Series: Can Kyle Larson turn his 2019 season around?

By Jacob LeBlanc | May 29, 2019

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 23: Kyle Larson, driver of the #42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

Can we expect to see Kyle Larson improve through the remainder of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season after an underwhelming start?

We have just passed the halfway mark of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, and I think we all expected Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson to have punched his ticket into the playoffs by now. But he has not yet won a points-paying race this season after going all of last season without a win.

Larson has not won a points-paying race since he won the second race at Richmond Raceway in the 2017 season. This is pretty alarming given how he was one of the more dominant drivers in the field in the 2017 season.

This season, through 13 points-paying races, Larson has no wins, just one top five finish, which was a third place finish in the race at Dover International Speedway, and four top 10 finishes. To go along with this, there have been four races that he did not finish. He currently sits in 16th place in the championship standings.

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Through the first 13 races this year, Larson’s average finishing position is 17.7, and his problems finding speed have also hurt him in qualifying, as he has recorded an average starting position of 16.4. These numbers do not look good in comparison to those of new teammate Kurt Busch, who is averaging a finish of 10.2 this season. Busch has finished each of the season’s 13 races so far in 2019.

This season has definitely been a down season for Larson so far. We are used to see him regularly competing for top 10 finishes and wins, but it just doesn’t seem to be clicking for him this year. It is a strange situation, as we have seen Larson as one of the top Chevrolet drivers in the field for the last few years, but that is certainly not the case this season. Pretty much all of Hendrick Motorsports seem to be outperforming him this season.

But there are a few positives to pick out for Larson right now. Like I said earlier, he recorded a third place finish in the race at Dover, which was just three races ago. He followed that up with an eighth place finish in the race at Kansas Speedway.

The big positive for him was the Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Larson needed to race his way into the race by winning one of the stages in the Monster Energy Open, which he did, and he ended up making his way through the field from the back and holding off hard-charging Kevin Harvick to take home the win and the $1 million prize. But unfortunately for Larson, a win in the All-Star Race doesn’t net any points or secure a playoff berth.

Larson was impressive in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway this past Sunday. He raced his way up into the top five, but he ended up spinning in front of the field and hitting Austin Dillon hard, ending both of their races early. But he still showed flashes of greatness during that race, and after two consecutive solid results, three including the All-Star Race and four including the Open, it appears as thought he may be starting to pick up some much-needed momentum.

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The next race on the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pocono 400, which is scheduled to be run on Sunday, Sunday, June 2 at Pocono Raceway. Could this be the race in which Kyle Larson breaks through to capture his first win of the season? Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 2:00 p.m. ET to find out.

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