Nascar Driver Heights
SONOMA, Calif. — Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. might be the best thing to happen to each other this season, right up to the point where they start trying to deny each other a first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.
That won’t officially be for a while, though. So for now, they’re preparing each other for the fight.
NASCAR’s new points system has made chasing numbers part of the job for drivers and crew chiefs. But being able to embody the pursuit with another driver can only help both as the summer slog begins for racers who could previously have let their focus meander to the fall.
Larson enters the Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sunday at Sonoma Raceway having led the standings after nine of the last 12 races, the exception being when Truex assumed the top spot after the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 28 and held it for three weeks -- until Larson won his second race of the season last week at Michigan.
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Larson currently leads Truex by five points. Both he and Truex have won twice to separate themselves from the rest of the field with 11 races remaining in the regular season. The next closest driver, Kyle Busch, is 130 points behind Larson in third.
Truex, benefitting from a series-best 10 stage wins, leads in playoff points (20), with defending series champion Jimmie Johnson (15), a three-time winner this season, second and Larson (13) third. Playoff points will be added to a driver’s total for the postseason, and the regular-season champion will be awarded 15 points — the equivalent bonus points of three wins — with the remaining drivers in the top 10 receiving values in descending order.
There is, therefore, something to pursue, and Larson and Truex are currently the only ones in the hunt.
The contest that has developed between the drivers is made more compelling as Larson, 24, a fourth-season Cup driver, has finally developed into a weekly threat and title-contender for Chip Ganassi Racing, and Furniture Row Racing's Truex, 36, continues to flirt with a first championship after finishing fourth in points in 2015.
PHOTOS: 2017 NASCAR CUP SERIES RACE WINNERS
Nascar Driver Heights
“We know what they’re doing because we’re parked right there next to them every week,” Truex said after posting the fastest lap during Friday's practice. “And every week we seem to come down to the end competing against them for race wins. It was the same at Michigan last week. He’s a great competitor and a guy I like competing against.”
Though the pursuit of playoff points under the new system would have happened anyway, Larson said there is “no doubt” value in having a foil for motivation after having already qualified for the postseason.
“[I’m] trying to stay as consistent as I can and race hard every race,” Larson said Friday. “I think in the previous points format if you get a win early on, you can kind of cruise a little bit and lose your drive on wanting to win as much. Now, with the bonus points on the line every week it is a big deal to run up front all throughout the races.”
Certainly, anything can happen when the 10-race, 16-driver playoffs begin at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 17. But no regular-season champion has had the benefit of this points system and the extra points as a hedge against disaster in a three-race playoff segment.
Nascar Driver Heights
If Larson and Truex can maintain the bulge they’ve opened, they can position themselves for a deep run toward the final at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Right now, they keep practicing for the moment.
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If a team changes an engine in its primary car at Daytona, it not only starts at the rear for the qualifying race and the Daytona 500 but also for the next race (Atlanta), too. That only occurs if it is in the primary car; if a team crashes, it can put a backup engine in its backup car and just start at the rear at Daytona.
That might sound harsh, but NASCAR has cut down the practice time, including not having any practice between single-car qualifying Sunday and the qualifying races Thursday. Cars will be impounded after single-car qualifying Sunday and no adjustments will be allowed until the start of the qualifying race Thursday.
12. No exceptions to pitting outside the box
If the nose of a car crosses the line of the pit box exit, no work can be done, including fueling of the car. That ends the confusion of the exception implemented during the 2017 season, when a team could tighten lug nuts even when the car was partially outside the box. And it eliminates the ability of the fueler to keep fueling as the car is partially out of the box while leaving the pit.