No one else is having a season as good as Kyle Larson now. He has won the most races among all drivers, and with a +35 playoff point lead, he cannot complain. To add, Larson was recently termed the best driver in the world, beating F1 World Champion Max Verstappen, according to many fans and critics. But there is one area where he has suffered.

Kyle Larson’s Achilles heel this season has been Superspeedways. It’s not even a one-off incident this year, as if you look at his record, the only races he has ranked P21 or worse have been Speedways. There is one exception though, where he came P39 at the Chicago street race, but this is concerning. The first two races of the playoffs are Speedways, so is this something that will make Larson lose his early advantage?

Kyle Larson and Superspeedways is only a one-off case, though, as he has been consistent on the same tracks in other seasons. Before the first race of the playoffs, Larson was interviewed at the circuit, and that’s where he was asked, “In Daytona a few weeks ago, you were making a lot more aggressive moves. Were you feeling more comfortable in the draft? Can you get any of that transfer here?”

Larson thought about his performances through the years and replied, “I don’t know. I mean, I feel like we had a pretty good handle on speedways for a few years. I just don’t really have the results to show for it. So yeah.”

Instilling hope in his fans, Larson continued, “I mean, we’ve been upfront a lot, so hopefully we’ll put ourselves in position again this weekend and have things work out a little bit better.” Winning 28 races in his Cup Series career, Larson would like to win a race at every track once. The Atlanta Motor Speedway is currently missing from his win list, and this is his chance to claim the win here.

Let’s take a look at his records over the years.

Kyle Larson’s stats at the Atlanta Motor Speedway

Although this season, Speedways have been like a curse for him, this was not always the case, especially not at Atlanta. Larson has been extremely close to winning several times, and in 2017 and 2019 he came second, just missing out on the victory.

2019 was more dramatic, as he finished 2nd after leading a race-high 142 laps but was set back by a pit-road speeding penalty. Larson has always led multiple laps in Atlanta. In the March 2021 race, he led 269 laps but finished 2nd after being passed by Ryan Blaney in the final laps.

While he’s had some great moments at Atlanta, it’s also the same track where he crashed and wrecked his car in June 2023, causing him to finish 36th. Another wreck story of Atlanta comes from this year itself, where during the February race, he started 5th but finished 32nd because of an accident.

The track is challenging, and he has spoken about it on social media in the past, but compared to earlier this year, he seems much more confident about having a good race here. But the question is if that will be good enough to win the first playoff race there or not. Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.