Chevy’s been absolutely killing it in the early part of the 2024 season, and even if folks at Chevy try to play it cool, the numbers speak for themselves. The Chevrolet drivers dominated the track, leading 237 out of 267 laps at the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And get this—they did it all while sticking with last season’s body design, even as Ford and Toyota rolled out their shiny new Next Gen Mustangs—Dark Horse and Camrys XSE.
That just adds an extra layer of awesomeness to Chevy’s performance. So, what’s the secret sauce for Chevrolet and Larson to keep this winning streak going? It might be for the manufacturer, but Kyle Larson has some thoughts on that.
Kyle Larson on every race and every wind
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Let’s break it down by the numbers. Chevrolet scored a one-two finish at Daytona Beach, took first and third spots at Atlanta, and nailed the first and fourth places at Las Vegas. Out of this year’s top-10 finishes, Chevy’s bagged 11 spots, edging out Toyota’s 10 and Ford’s 9. In NASCAR’s big three series, Chevy’s almost unbeatable, sweeping the board in the Cup, nearly acing the Xfinity, and dominating the Craftsman Truck Series. Plus, with six Chevy drivers in the top 10 for Cup and Xfinity points and another four in the Craftsman, they’re not messing around.
With just 16 spots up for grabs in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and wins being the golden ticket, Chevy’s already claimed nearly 19% of those Playoff spots thanks to William Byron, Daniel Suarez, and Kyle Larson himself, and we’re barely over 8% through the season. Great stats, right?
Keeping Chevrolet on top, when the latest Cup race champ Kyle Larson was hit up about what it’ll take to keep edging out Ford and Toyota, he kicked things off with an “I’m not sure.” But then, diving deeper, he mentioned:
“I think just continuing to evolve and get you know your setups and stuff better. um you know I’m not a car guy so I don’t really know like how much room there is to make the cars and stuff itself better. But um you know there’s always uh stuff to be learned from every event and and every wind tunnel test and anything like that. So just trying to do do a good job with the data that you receive and try to tweak and make things better just as every team does.”
And despite Ford and Toyota rolling out new models claiming they’re built to dominate right from the get-go, especially with two superspeedway races starting the season, they haven’t managed to clinch a win yet.
Despite performing impressively, Fords and Toyotas have been lagging behind
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Kyle Larson just snagged his first victory of the season in a show of sheer dominance, sweeping the first two stages, leading a whopping 118 out of 267 laps, and just barely keeping Tyler Reddick’s #45 Toyota at bay in the final moments. Reddick wasn’t going down without a fight, closing the gap to a nail-biting 0.2 seconds behind Larson’s #5 Chevrolet right as the race was winding down.
This season kicked off with a double dose of Superspeedway action, but Las Vegas was where the rubber really met the road in a more traditional racing showdown. Ford and Toyota had been hyping up their new cars, promising they were tailor-made for this kind of track. True to their word, they racked up three and four top-ten finishes, respectively.
Read More: Kyle Larson Not Worried About His “Legacy” as He Slowly Creeps Up NASCAR’s All-Time Win List
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Ford’s squad saw Ryan Blaney, Noah Gragson, and Joey Logano lock down third, sixth, and ninth places. On Toyota’s side, Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr, and Denny Hamlin nabbed fifth, seventh, and eighth, making it a tight race. But it was 23XI and Reddick who looked like they might actually steal the spotlight from Larson.
The top ten was pretty evenly split, with Toyota sneaking in an extra top-ten finish over Ford, but Chevrolet took the crown. Ford and Toyota had been urging fans to hold judgment on their new cars until they hit the non-superspeedway tracks. Well, now we’ve seen what they can do.