“I think the field knows that we could win at any track,” Kyle Larson boldly stated after picking up his season’s 6th win. The Charlotte Roval witnessed the No. 5 Chevrolet driver go all out to prevail against a road course genius, Shane van Gisbergen, and the revamped track’s tricky turns. In the end, Larson led a race-high 62 of 109 laps. Yet if you look at his overall playoff scenario, it has been a mixed bag for Larson.

In the opening race of Atlanta, the Hendrick Motorsports driver fell prey to superspeedway ravages. He crashed out in Kansas as well but then expertly avoided the Talladega carnage. But his winning storylines have peaked the charts – he led 462 of 500 laps in Bristol, and now marveled fans at the Roval. So an HMS veteran thinks Larson would either crash or dominate the Cup garage.

No midway path for Kyle Larson

Watkins Glen was an exception though, where our golden boy could scrape together a 12th-place finish in a chaotic race. However, the overarching pattern of Kyle Larson’s all-or-nothing approach may hit the upcoming Las Vegas race. We all know the remarkable performance in March, where Larson fended off a hard-charging Tyler Reddick for the win. The No. 5 driver owns 3 wins at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, with an average finish of 9.3 – best among active drivers. He leads HMS’ track record for success of 10 overall victories in Sin City.

Hence, besides entertaining the strong chances of Kyle Larson winning this race, HMS veteran Steve Letarte opined he would try to leave no crumbs as he did in Bristol. Yet drivers can reach 200 mph along the 20-degree banking turns and the 9-12-degree banking straightaway.

So Letarte sowed the seeds of doubt as well: “I think Vegas is scary. They don’t want to have a lot of action on him. When he’s good, I mean look, when he dominates, it’s a**-kicking – whipped everybody at Bristol, whipped everybody at the Roval.” 

Then again we are talking about Kyle Larson, possibly a living legend in American motorsports. This phenom of a driver can forego personal choices. He practiced on simulators for the Roval despite never liking them. So Letarte believes either he will strike gold or remain a pauper. “Now, it seems like the third race of each round is his signature. It wouldn’t shock me if Larson wrecks, it wouldn’t shock me if Larson wins. The only thing that would shock me is something in the middle.” From 2005 to 2010, Letarte served as crew chief for four-time Cup Series HMS champion Jeff Gordon, now the vice chairman of Larson’s team.

Despite Letarte’s inflated confidence in Kyle Larson’s Las Vegas chances, one obstacle remains. The driver’s March rival is rolling up his sleeves for another showdown.

Vegas is about to get steamy

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Tyler Reddick emerged as a fiery threat throughout the regular season. He had a solid stretch in the summer when he raked up 7 top-five finishes. After accumulating 2 wins and 11 top-fives, he clinched the regular season title as he beat Kyle Larson by one point. Although the 23XI Racing driver has fared poorly throughout the playoffs where his best finish was 6th, he prepares himself to break that bleak streak. “We need to have some solid races and get back to what we’ve been doing all year,” he said. And for Reddick, Las Vegas is the first to tackle on his path back to the front.

Kyle Larson swept both stages and led 181 of 267 laps in Las Vegas. But after a restart with 27 laps to go, Tyler Reddick sliced up the gap on fresh tires, soon hounding Larson from the back. In the end, Reddick was a scant 0.143 seconds behind Larson at the stripe, roughly one car length. So the No. 45 Toyota driver is gathering all his strength to make it through this time. “Everyone’s really motivated to get back (to Las Vegas) because it’s a really huge opportunity to be able to win and lock ourselves into Phoenix (for the Championship 4).” He added, “From an outside perspective, this is the best we’ve been as a team thus far. We have a great shot this year and we’re looking to capitalize on that and get it done.”

Evidently, Kyle Larson will have a lot on his plate for Las Vegas. But as Steve Letarte emphasized, the HMS speedster will do all he can to come out as the dominant winner.