On Sunday, Kyle Larson (fourth) will start the Allied 400 a few rows ahead of Chase Elliott (19th). The two former Hendrick champions will each top the points tally and sit atop the regular season standings, barring some good moves in Music City.
But that’s not the only conflict the two are currently facing. In NASCAR’s fourth trip to Nashville Superspeedway, Elliott and Larson have a chance to break their bitter stalemate by winning the race and securing their second custom Les Paul at the 1.33-mile track. But the balance seems tighter than ever between the No. 5 and No. 9 camps waiting for an upset in Middle Tennessee. That’s exactly what Kyle Larson believes, and it comes with a lot of caution. The No. 5 driver then shared his thoughts on racing head-to-head against familiar opponents for ultimate glory in the 2024 NASCAR season.
Kyle Larson & Chase Elliott in points race despite different paths
As the grid unfolds after the green flag, Larson and Elliott will be tied atop the points standings with 620 points. Importantly, the former now has a 67-stage points lead, thanks to eight stage wins against Elliott’s progress, and one stage win in nearly 20 points-earning races.
However, the more notable statistical difference is that Larson missed a race on the 2024 calendar in his quest for his first regular-season championship title. As most of you know by now, this was due to unfortunate natural circumstances that prevented him from competing in the Coca-Cola 600 Crown Jewel in May. The charter/no-charter drama that dogged Larson after that debacle is now certainly a thing of the past, as evidenced by his weekly points increase. But now, a new story has emerged surrounding Kyle Larson.
On the frontstretch, Caleb Barnes asked him a poignant question: “You’re neck and neck with your teammate Chase Elliott in the regular season points battle. Does that affect your driving attitude towards him on the home straight?” Kyle Larson denied the idea of an additional incentive for hyper-competition, saying: “I mean, there’s still a lot of races left before the playoffs start.” To further emphasize his point, the No. 5 driver explained his final aspirations and another reason for his initial refusal: “We’ve been able to run together very well and it’s been great to see their team so strong this year. “They’re very consistent, so it’s hard to compete against them.
But you know, our team has done a good job, too. And we just have to get back to being as consistent as we’ve been,” Larson said with his usual calm, collected and realistic expression.
Meanwhile, NASCAR statisticians recently published an interesting mid-season comparison of his Hendrick Motorsports stablemates. Kyle Larson is the undisputed lap leader, having completed a staggering 755 laps, with an astounding 80% of those laps coming in the first two phases of the race. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott boasts a near perfect attendance record (something Larson would likely envy), having completed all but one round this year.
Additionally, over the past 19 races, Elliott leads all drivers with an average finish of 9.161 points. So the battle for Nashville supremacy isn’t as simple as an internal tug of war. It’s about prizes, records, and most importantly, making history at the 4th Annual Ally 400. But what does NASCAR’s seven-time most popular driver in history think about these recent developments?
JGR spoiler alert at the Hendrick party in Nashville?
In the past five races, Kyle Larson has recorded a DNS, a top-10 finish, a race win, a DNF and a top-5 finish, in that order. This leaves little doubt as to why the recent series of races has clearly been a real rollercoaster ride for the entire No. 5 team. Elliott, on the other hand, has yet to reach the standard that was once expected of him. A lot can be attributed to his recovery from a fractured tibia, which typically requires four to six months of rehabilitation time.
And more could be perceived as the evolution of NASCAR’s NextGen, which is constantly changing to theoretically produce a new champion. Nonetheless, Elliott’s strength this year has mainly been his consistency. Kyle Larson has three wins compared to the No. 9 driver so far heading into the Allied 400 in Texas, but Elliott is the only driver yet to finish inside the top 20 this season. Ironically, Larson finished outside the top 20 for the first time in that race, then finished 21st again the following weekend. Larson’s teammate has a podium, a top-five finish, two finishes of 18th or better in the final five races of the season, and a seventh place finish at the end of the 2024 Coca-Cola 600. This reveals an uncomfortable dynamic in Hendrick’s garage.
But as Chase Elliott recently told the media in a presser at New Hampshire, “Kyle and I raced for a championship a couple of times. I can say with a lot of confidence that our meetings have never changed – How everyone talks, or the things that are discussed, or the information that is uploaded into our internal servers… It’s just important for us to lean on each other, and ultimately take the information that you gather and try to do a better job with it.”
The teammates, quite unlikely to ever turn full-blown rivals owing to their likable personalities, may very well not be at any odds against each other heading to Nashville. But a contender sneaking up on both their advances from the Joe Gibbs Racing camp is Denny Hamlin. When Larson slipped up due to Mother Nature at Charlotte in May, Denny was the one to benefit, even leading the points table briefly until his Hendrick rivals’ took back the lead, to tussle among themselves gearing up for Nashville.
And considering Denny Hamlin sweeps both stages and manages to win the Ally 400 on Sunday, both Larson and Elliott would be two points behind the #11 driver in the regular season standings moving onwards to the great race NASCAR weekend. Hamlin also won the pole position for the Nashville Cup race. The script for this season’s must-watch championship battle is finally about to explode. So let us know in the comments below who you think could be the latest winner of NASCAR’s rollercoaster 2024 regular season.
