NASCAR at Sonoma preview: Kyle Larson carries winning streak into 1st road course race of the season

Kyle Larson has four wins in his past four races and is on the pole for Sunday’s Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

Four wins in four races across three different series on two different surfaces. If it feels like 24-year-old Kyle Larson cannot lose, it’s because he seemingly can’t.

The streak started with a victory in a World of Outlaws race at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway June 13, followed by winning the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. Then on Monday and Tuesday came wins in All Star Circuit of Champions races on a pair of Ohio dirt tracks.

Up next for Larson is Sonoma Raceway, a 12-turn, 1.99-mile road course and the site of Sunday’s Cup Series race (3 p.m. ET, FS1). But the fourth-year driver for Chip Ganassi Racing will be tested to continue his roll at the track located in California’s wine country and 85 miles from his hometown of Elk Grove, Calif.

“We definitely have some really good momentum going for me in all different types of motorsports right now,” Larson said. “It’s been a lot of fun the last week or so, winning a lot of races in different cars. Hopefully, we can come here, it’s a totally different race track than what I’ve been on this year.

“Looking forward to it though, I always enjoy coming to Sonoma and hanging out in Napa Valley with some friends and coming to do road course racing is always fun, too.”

Larson has made three starts at Sonoma, one of two road courses the Cup Series competes on annually, and though he’s qualified exceptionally with an average starting position of fourth, things haven’t gone as well in the race, where he’s finished 28th, 15th, and 12th and never led a single lap.

But Larson is confident better performance is ahead. He believes his dirt sprint car roots benefit him more at Sonoma than any of the ovals that dominate the Cup schedule.

“On the ovals, [the Cup cars] are just stuck to the race track and they are pretty rigid and don’t move around a whole lot, where sprint cars kind of flex around and you can feel the suspension a lot more,” Larson said.

“Look at all the pictures and stuff of the stock cars going around here, the front ends are flying in the air and there is a lot of movement. Like you can feel the grip better … I feel like I can understand and feel the car better when I come here.”

There may be some truth to Larson’s contention when taking into account Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart, each with extensive backgrounds racing on dirt, have won in recent years at Sonoma. A common sight on the twisty track is drivers sliding around, attempting to wrestle control of their cars.

“I have no idea how this became one of my best tracks,” said Bowyer, who won at Sonoma in 2012.

That Larson says he feels more comfortable at Sonoma than anywhere else is foreboding news for the competition, considering the high level he’s exhibited throughout the Cup season. His two wins are second only to Jimmie Johnson’s three, and five times he’s finished second.

In final practice Friday, Larson posted the fastest single-lap speed. The only driver faster in the first practice was Martin Truex Jr., which was fitting as Larson and Truex have been in lockstep with one another for the majority of the season.

Larson has led the points standings nine of the past 12 weeks, with Truex holding the top spot the other three weeks. Larson leapfrogged Truex following his win at Michigan, a race Truex led the most laps and won the first two stages before pit strategy and track position cost him a chance at the victory in the third stage.

But while Larson is five points ahead of Truex in the regular season standings, the Furniture Row Racing driver has accumulated a series-best 20 playoff points compared to Larson’s 13 points under NASCAR’s new format that allows postseason-eligible drivers to carry their bonus points through the first three playoff rounds. Truex’s total is such that he’s already well positioned to advance to the four-driver championship finale Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I would say that some of it is typically we're usually faster on longer runs, and it kind of plays into your hands to be that way to win stages because typically you've got to be good on the long run to win them,” Truex said. “For whatever reason, those things have kind of played into our favor, and we've been able to capitalize."

Ample opportunity still exists for Larson to trim Truex’s advantage with 11 regular-season races remaining. He took the first step toward doing that with a 95.295 mph average lap that earned Larson the pole for the Toyota/Save Mart 350. His CGR teammate Jamie McMurray qualified second, with Truex third.

“[I’m] trying to stay as consistent as I can and race hard every race,” Larson said. “I think in the previous points format if you get a win early on you can kind of cruise a little bit and lose your drive on wanting to win as much. Now, with the bonus points on the line every week it is a big deal to run up front all throughout the races.”