Kyle Larson is in a unique position. A week ago, he was chasing his first Sprint Cup win. He got it last Sunday, putting himself in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Now he'll look to build on that success. Next up: Sunday's night's Southern 500 at Darlington.
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Michigan was Larson's first Cup victory in his 99th start. Not only did he win, but he went locked into the 16-driver Chase field. The 10-race championship series begins Sept. 18.
Larson's win was good for both the driver and the sport. NBC analyst Steve Letarte, a former crew member and chief at Hendrick Motorsports, said Larson, 24, fulfilled the expectations pressed upon him in this, his third full Cup season.
With the retirement of top contenders in recent years and Tony Stewart's departure after this season, stock car racing must replace its superstars.
Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick have done their part, winning races and championships. But Larson now carrying the banner for younger drivers.
"Kyle Larson has been that young man that we've all looked at with such raw talent. … now in his third year he finally breaks through and I think it's great for the sport and I know it's great for Kyle," Letarte said.
The question now: Where does Larson go from here?
Winning a race can sometimes spark even more victories going forward. Can Larson hit a hot streak and win again this weekend, or in the other 11 races remaining this season?
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Larson was 10th at Darlington last season and eighth the previous year.
Can he win back to back, or win again in the Chase? Letarte believes he can.
"The biggest thing is when you're that close and you fall short at times, I think you start to feel snakebit and you start to look over your shoulder on what could happen to prevent you from winning the next one and that's never the approach you ever want out of your driver or your race team," Letarte said. "You want to always think about what we can do to win, not what can happen so we lose.
"Once you get that breakthrough win, while in the real world the pressure probably goes up, once you become a race winner you're expected to win all the time, in someone's case like Kyle Larson, the pressure was already so high, everyone expected you to win, that finally he has won a race I think that he can go back to, not that he stopped enjoying racing, but he can go back to really enjoying racing.
"I always found that really talented race car drivers, when they're having fun, they're really dangerous."
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Larson's teammate, Jamie McMurray, seems to have confident in the young driver.
While Larson had strong races this season, he wasn't able to convert those into a win — until last week.
McMurray is fighting for a Chase berth as well, needing to get in on points or to win one of the two remaining races. The way he sees it, Larson won at just the right time.
"They've maybe not had the best luck, but have had a lot of speed," he said on Friday. "They have run really well at a lot of races and maybe didn't get the finish that they deserved. I think that they have as good a shot at this as anybody."
Still, he points out that it's hard to assess oneself against the teams already in the Chase at this point. It'll be a couple more weeks before he or Larson truly know where they stack up against the heavyweights who earned their Chase berths weeks or months ago.
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"To me the story is the Gibbs cars seem pretty normal the last couple of weeks," he said. "My gut tells me they are holding back and maybe not showing everything that they have. So, when we get to Chicago we will find out if they have been holding back or if they have been showing their hand and that is just all the speed that they have right now.
"Until you get to Chicago (for the first Chase race) and you kind of see when everybody brings their best stuff out it is hard to kind of pick anything at this point."
As to Larson, he hopes to find consistency in the closing stretch — and that he and his team are hitting their stride at just the right time. Can he earn a critical win in the Chase?
"The first couple rounds, you just got to be consistent, not have any bad luck, not lose any points," he said after his Michigan win. "I'm sure it will be stressful when we get to the Chase. You race a little bit differently when you're in the Chase, I think, than when you're out of it and have nothing to lose. … we're going to try our best to get a couple wins and advance in the rounds."