Kyle Larson’s 2021 LVMS win set tone for title season

Second chance equaled first place at last year’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Larson led a race-high 103 laps en route to the seventh victory of his career and his first after nine second-place finishes on a 1.5-mile oval.

It was his first of 10 wins during a dominating season in which he cruised to his first Cup Series championship after being suspended by NASCAR after using a racial slur during an online race at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Larson took control of a competitive race during the third stage and didn’t look back in more ways than one after beating Brad Keselowski to the checkered flag by 3.156 seconds. Las Vegas native Kyle Busch battled back from a rough start to finish third, with Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top five.

It was Larson’s fourth start since being reinstated by NASCAR. He wasted little time in thanking his new car owner, Rick Hendrick, after being suspended by NASCAR and fired by Chip Ganassi Racing.

“Thanks Mr. H. for believing in me,” Larson said on his in-car radio after crossing the finish line.

The first driver who congratulated Larson, whose mother is Japanese American, after his victory burnout was Bubba Wallace — the Cup Series’ only African-American driver.

It was a day of redemption for Larson and a day of normalcy for NASCAR after the first three races of the 2021 season produced surprise winners. The top five finishers all drove for marquee teams.

Every race is different, but it became clear early on an overcast day that this one would belong to Larson, a 28-year Californian who was reared on open wheel dirt tracks.

“This was such an awesome race car,” he said after climbing from his No. 5 Chevrolet and hearing appreciative cheers from a crowd limited to 12,500 by COVID restrictions. “It was so much fun to drive. I could go wherever I wanted to — I knew I had a real good car once we got single-filed out.”

But unlike many races at LVMS, this was far from a single-file race. Despite Larson’s dominance, there were 27 lead changes among 12 drivers and lots of racing in close quarters, especially on restarts.

One expert observer was impressed with the quality of the show and Larson’s role in it.

“Today @LV Motor Speedway was probably the most entertaining race I ever watched as Kyle drove the race of his life,” legendary Mario Andretti wrote on Twitter. “Ol’ Rick knew what he was doing when he hired him.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.