Kyle Larson smoothly managed three late restarts and finally drove away from the field Sunday at Michigan International Speedway to easily post his second win of the season. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver started from the pole, placed among the top five in each of the first two stages and led a race-high 96 laps, including the final 15 trips around the two-mile Irish Hills oval.
Larson beat runner-up Chase Elliott to the finish by a full second with Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray completing the top five. Martin Truex, Jr. won the first two stages and finished sixth overall, leading 62 laps. Erik Jones was the highest-finishing rookie in 13th place.
With Larson’s victory, pole winners have now won five of the last eight Cup Series races run in Michigan. That list includes Logano (twice), Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth. Logano was bidding to become the first driver with back-to-back wins in the track’s springtime race since Hamlin doubled up in 2010 and 2011, but had to settle for third place.
Sunday’s race included just 10 lead changes among four drivers. That’s the fewest number of drivers to lead a Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway since the track first hosted the series in 1969. The previous low was five, which had occurred five times before but not since 1984. The total of eight cautions in yesterday’s race was two shy of the track record set in 2006. Sunday’s win was the third at MIS for team owner Chip Ganassi, who also won last summer with Larson behind the wheel and in 2001 with Sterling Marlin driving.
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– story by John Singler
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Concord, North Carolina
