MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Kyle Larson never thought he would tame the cozy confines of Martinsville Speedway, the little track nicknamed “the Paperclip” because of its long asphalt oval.
And then came Sunday.
In a duel between the past two NASCAR Cup Series champions, Larson drove his No. 5 Chevrolet past Joey Logano’s Team Penske No. 22 Ford with 29 laps to go, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver went on to secure his second win of the season the same day teammate Chase Elliott returned to competition after a six-race layoff due to injury.
It was the 21st win of Larson’s Cup Series career and his 15th in a three-year stretch that started with his 2021 championship season.
Larson has struggled mightily at Martinsville in the past. In his previous 17 Cup Series starts on the 0.526-mile layout — the shortest on NASCAR’s top circuit — he had only three top-five finishes and had never been better than third. Now he comes out of the Cup Series’ three-race tour of short tracks with two victories, having won April 2 in Virginia at Richmond Raceway (0.75 mile) before stumbling to a 35th-place finish on the temporary dirt surface at Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533 mile) in Tennessee.
“I never, ever would have thought I would have won here,” Larson said. “This place has been so tough on me and just does not suit my driving style at all. … I just can’t believe it.”
Because of his lack of past success at the track, Larson joked that he doesn’t have a placed picked out for the 6-foot tall grandfather clock awarded to the winner. He also said the clock immediately becomes one of his most prized possessions, because it serves as a reminder of how hard he has worked to win at a track where he never felt comfortable.
“I’ve left here just mad. I’ve hated this place, and I’ve wished it would flood,” the 30-year-old California said with a laugh. “I wished a lot of bad things on this place.”
Logano, who was forced to begin the race in the back of the field after his crew found a leak in his water tank prior to the start, finished second. He was followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin in Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas and Chase Briscoe in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Logano was thrilled with his runner-up result, knowing he didn’t have the car to hold off Larson late in the race on a restart. The two-time Cup Series champion was also coming off a 37th-place finish — last — on the Bristol dirt.
“We got lapped twice, and at one point I would have been happy to finish on the lead lap,” Logano said with a laugh.
His luck changed when he stayed out on the track and caught a timely yellow flag, with the caution helping him suddenly land in the top five and in contention to win.
“There are days when you are mad about second place, but today is not one of those,” Logano said.
Aric Almirola was sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion who has been voted its most popular driver by fans the past five years, finished 10th in his first race since breaking his left leg while snowboarding in early March in Colorado. He ran in the mid-20s for most of the race before closing strong.
“It was warm, and I have been sitting on a couch for six weeks, so that probably hurt me more than anything,” said Elliott, who started 24th. “But we struggled really bad, honestly. Every run but the last one. We finally got it going at the end and made some passes.”
Because he’s so far behind in the points race, Elliott likely needs a victory to get into the 10-race playoffs this fall. He won five times last year to lead the Cup Series, and for the third year in a row, he was among the four drivers eligible for the championship in the season finale last November at Phoenix Raceway.
SHR’s Ryan Preece started in pole position Sunday but wound up 15th. He dominated early, leading the first 136 laps before a costly speeding penalty on pit row sent his No. 41 Ford to the back of the field. He never challenged again.
After winning the first Cup Series pole of his career on Saturday, Preece added another first to his racing resumé when he won the opening stage of the race. The 32-year-old driver had led just 29 laps in his entire Cup Series career prior to Sunday.
SHR teammate Kevin Harvick, the winner of the second stage, was running near the front for most of the day until his right front tire went down due to a broken rim with 53 laps to go. Harvick had been seeking his 61st career Cup Series victory and first since last August.
The circuit is headed for a big shift from its run of short tracks, with next Sunday’s race the first of two visits this season to 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain won the spring race there last season and Elliott captured the fall race for a playoff victory.
AP photo by Jae C. Hong / Kyle Kirkwood competes in the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday in California. A day after qualifying for the first pole position of his IndyCar career, Kirkwood drove to his first victory on the American open-wheel series.Kirkwood’s first Indy win special
LONG BEACH, Calif. — As Kyle Kirkwood crossed the finish line for the first win of his IndyCar Series career, his new race strategist urged him to soak up the sights and sounds of victory.
It nearly brought the 24-year-old driver to tears.
“I guarantee even Mario Andretti, all the wins he’s had, he still remembers the first one,” said Bryan Herta, who was moved to Kirkwood’s strategist one race ago. “This is just an important milestone, because it’s one thing to be a guy who people think can win in IndyCar; it’s something else to be somebody who has won in IndyCar.”
Kirkwood held off teammate Romain Grosjean on the downtown streets of Long Beach to give Andretti Autosport a 1-2 finish at the most prestigious street course race in the United States. Coincidentally, team owner Michael Andretti scored his first career win at Long Beach in 1986 and Mario Andretti won three IndyCar races at Long Beach and in 1977 became the only American driver to win a Formula One race on American soil when this grand prix was on the international open-wheel circuit.
“This is such a special race, I grew up watching it, and to win here is such a dream come true. The next best race to win, outside of this one, is Indianapolis,” said Kirkwood, a native of Jupiter, Florida. “And the feeling I got, it was like trying to hold tears back in the car, which is something I never really felt before.”
A day earlier, Kirkwood qualified for the first pole position of his IndyCar career.
He was challenged in the middle of the race by Josef Newgarden, last year’s winner in Long Beach, but Kirkwood reclaimed the lead when the Team Penske driver pitted for new tires. Kirkwood stayed out for a handful more laps and was able to make his stop for tires and get back on track before Newgarden could reclaim the lead.
Newgarden, the winner two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway in the second race of the season, dropped to sixth. Kirkwood’s primary challengers over the closing laps were Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing, but neither got close enough to make an attempt at the pass for the win, and Grosjean seemed to be protecting Kirkwood’s lead from Ericsson at the end of the race.
Colton Herta was fourth and Alex Palou fifth, both for Ganassi, as Honda drivers swept the top five. Penske’s Will Power was the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver at sixth as teammate Newgarden faded to ninth.
The season continues April 30 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.