Bristol blowout dusts off Kyle Larson’s greatness at just the right time

Greatness sometimes can be easy to overlook. It also can be easy to overdo.

Both concepts apply to Kyle Larson, who became the presumptive favorite for the 2024 Cup Series title with the most dominant performance of his career and in the illustrious history of his storied team, the winningest in NASCAR history.

Larson set a Hendrick Motorsports record by leading 462 of 500 laps Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway (most at the legendary short track in 47 years), and he also gained seven more playoff points by sweeping both stages.

He is reseeded atop the standings and 15 points ahead of Christopher Bell entering the Round of 12 at Kansas Speedway (where Larson won four months ago in the closest finish ever) with the chance to expand his playoff point cushion (47) to a full-race bulge (60) by the Round of 8

Larson has a career-best five poles this season, a series-high five victories (a personal best since his 2021 championship) and a series-high 12 stage wins.

He is a strong bet to make his third championship appearance in the past four years.

But aside from those two weeks he spent trying to win the Indy 500 (and cement his claim to being the world’s best race car driver), this season’s predominant Larson narrative has centered on his mini-slumps over the superlatives.

There was that pre- and post-Indy stretch when he finished outside the top 20 five times in 11 races.

And Bristol marked his first Cup win since the Brickyard 400, a late-summer swoon in which he finished outside the top 10 in four of six races with a best finish of fourth.

Never mind that two-month stretch also included winning the world’s biggest dirt race for a third time (again, greatness is easy to overlook), but Larson hardly lacked for speed in his No. 5 Chevrolet. He led four of those races and easily could have won at Michigan and Darlington.

The results might have made him look human, but Larson rarely is behind the wheel.

When he seems ordinary, it’s actually a sign that he has as much breathtaking speed as ever but is hunting the limit to harness it.

That’s why overdoing it is an accepted part of doing business for a sublimely talented superstar.

“Kyle is one of the best to ever drive anything, and he just has this natural ability to drive over the limit all the time and get away with it,” Bell, who knows Larson well from dirt and pavement racing, recently said. “I’d say that’s his Achilles’ heel, too. He can make mistakes at times, but I think his 100 percent is everyone else’s 110 percent, so he has that ability to push the car really hard and get away with stuff other guys can’t.”

And this should be what worries the rest of the championship contenders: The only blemish in Larson’s game this season has been the byproduct of the driver evaluating his team’s massive potential by occasionally taking maximum risks.

“Our strengths are our speed,” he said just before the playoffs began. “We’re really fast at every race track: road courses, superspeedways, all of that. I know it might not seem like it at times, but I think our execution is great. And I think we’ve also overcome a lot of adversity at times, so I think we’re well-rounded as a team.”

From unknown tire wear to unexpected traction compound, crew chief Cliff Daniels’ group solved a series of curveballs at Bristol.

But Larson stopped short of agreeing his 28th career victory stamped him as the driver to beat in the playoffs.

“We’ve dominated lots of races,” he said. “I think teams already know that we’re capable of doing it on any given weekend.”

That’s greatness personified — if not always appreciated.