#kyle larson

[cemeterygrace]

rollercoaster of a day for mclaren fans across f1, f2, and indy. goddamn. lando p1 and oscar p3 for f1. alex dunne doing all that in f2. pato o'ward indy 500 win dreams crushed. nolan siegel in the wall and waiting forever for an update on his wellbeing. kyle larson (for some reason?) was there racing for mclaren and he crashed too. christian lundgaard was also there just chilling. good god did i miss anything?

[grogumaximus]

[kalscattergood]

Oof. Kyle with "The Double DNF".

[sixdegreesofbali]

An interview with Max just came out where he addresses the idea of who the best driver in motorsports is. Mind you, this interview was given at the Barcelona GP long before Larson opened his big mouth.

Note how Max answers this question with absolute class and humility.

Larson can only learn (from a guy who's 6 years his junior...).

x

[coimbrabertone]

MotoGP Silly Season Predictions - Plus Larson Waiver Talk.

As recently as this morning, I was planning on this week's blogpost being about the Kyle Larson waiver situation over in NASCAR, however, MotoGP then decided to do everything all at once and launched silly season into high gear.

So, with regards to Larson, I'll just say one thing: he raced in the Indianapolis 500 competitively and made NASCAR look good mere years after Jimmie Johnson, unfortunately, struggled in a Chip Ganassi Indycar on road and street circuits - and there were a lot of jokes at NASCAR's expense after their seven-time world champion spun out every race. So how does NASCAR repay him? Utter silence over whether or not he'll get a playoff waiver.

Kyle Larson is the 2021 champion, took his car to the owner's championship final four as a result of playoff shenanigans in 2022, and then made the final four in 2023 again. He is considered one of the top talents in NASCAR and he has the results to back it up. So why is there controversy over him getting a playoff waiver for this year?

Because Kyle Larson prioritized the Indianapolis 500 last weekend.

I talked about this in my Motorsports Christmas blogpost, but the Indy 500 was rain delayed and Kyle Larson stayed there to compete, and only then he flew out to Charlotte. Now, Kyle Larson landed, was ready to get into the car, but then it started raining in Charlotte too. Just before midnight, as the track was drying, NASCAR controversially decided to call the race, thus Kyle Larson was not able to relieve Justin Allgaier in the #5 and resume the rest of the Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR is mad because every other weekend of the year, they're the biggest show in racing, they can throw their weight around and try to chase NFL ratings while all other racing series are considered a niche. That's true every weekend except Memorial Day weekend, when the Indianapolis 500 reigns supreme. The whole existence of the Charlotte 600 is to compete with Indy.

Larson prioritized the bigger race and that made NASCAR made, because they're used to getting their egos stroked.

Larson is one of the best drivers in NASCAR and the double attempt brought good publicity to both sports. He had already won his way into the playoffs and made an effort to get to Charlotte for the end of the 600 - give him a waiver. If not, well, you face the possibility that Austin Cindric is in the playoffs after his shock win at Iowa, and one of the top drivers in the series isn't.

I like Austin, I'm glad he won, but he's nowhere near the same level as Kyle Larson. If he can compete for the championship and Kyle can't, then it makes the NASCAR playoffs look even less legitimate than they already are.

Anyway, that turned into a longer rant than I intended, so I'll leave it there. Now onto the main topic for today: MotoGP silly season.

Yesterday at Mugello, Enea Bastianini spent the final laps of the race charging from fourth to second, overtaking Marc Marquez for third and then pulling off an audacious last corner pass on Jorge Martin for second. This meant that Enea finished just eight tenths off leader Pecco Bagnaia for a factory Ducati 1-2.

So naturally, Ducati has decided to replace him.

Marc Marquez, who finished four and last out of these three, is going to the Ducati Lenovo Team, according to Autosport.

This was all but confirmed when, a few hours later, Aprilia confirmed the signing of Jorge Martin for Aprilia. Jorge Martin who finished third and got overtaken by Enea Bastianini in the final corner, mind you.

Now, of course, Ducati is not judging this off of one race alone and I acknowledge - as I did in two recent blogposts - that Enea has had a rotten time on the factory Ducati seat. That being said, seeing him lose Ducati to Marc Marquez, who finished last of the main three, and then lose out on the Aprilia seat to the guy he overtook in the final corner. It stings.

That being said, some news out of this weekend might offer a possibility for Enea to have a bit of a soft landing from the factory seat anyway. Let me explain:

Earlier in this weekend, Marc Marquez spelled out his demands in an interview. He said that he was not interested in going to Pramac, saying that he didn't want to switch from a satellite team (he's currently riding a 2023 Ducati at Gresini Racing) to another satellite team (Pramac runs 2024 Ducatis, same as the factory team, with factory contracted riders, they are still customers, however). Instead, Marquez said that the best option was a factory team, and if not that, then a factory bike at minimum.

Translation: Marc Marquez wanted the factory team for 2025, and if he couldn't get that, then he wanted a 2025 Ducati at Gresini, remaining at his current team.

In response, Gino Borsoi, who is the team manager at Pramac, insisted that his team had a contract for two factory-spec Ducati GP25s next year. This was somewhat of a surprise for a number of reasons, one: Ducati announced late last year that they signed Moto2 rider Fermin Aldeguer for 2025, and it seemed like the natural landing spot for him was going to be Pramac...until it emerged later on that Ducati wanted to start Fermin out on a 2024 bike. Two: regardless of which spec Ducati Fermin is going to be on, Pramac has been heavily linked to Yamaha lately.

The Japanese bikes are struggling in MotoGP right now and, ever since RNF switched to satellite Aprilias for 2023, Yamaha has not had a satellite team. Four bikes capturing data instead of two could really help Yamaha right now, so they've been linked to pretty much every Ducati satellite team the last few months. VR46 with the romanticism of a Valentino Rossi and Yamaha reunion, Gresini until they renewed their deal, and most recently, with Pramac.

Yamaha was desperate and the rumor has been that they offered very generous terms to Pramac.

So, the news that Pramac may stay with Ducati after all is a shock to the media, but it does not seem to have been much of a shock to Ducati. Ducati had been working on a way to keep both Martin and Marquez, and it seems that they wanted to offer Pramac the chance to run MotoGP's biggest star - Marc Marquez - as a reason to stay...and potentially a reason to accept taking on a rookie Aldeguer on a year-old bike as well.

Now that Marquez is going to the factory team instead and Jorge Martin has snatched the open Aprilia seat, I see an opening. Ducati can send Enea Bastianini to Pramac, keeping him on a factory spec bike while giving Pramac another frontrunning rider. Aldeguer joins as Bastianini's teammate, on a GP25 if that's what it takes to keep Pramac in the fold, because Marc Marquez will be in the factory team so freeing up a GP25 won't be as important.

What about VR46 and Gresini then? Well, I think Marco Bezzecchi's current season has been a bit of a disaster, so he won't really have much of a chance to get a factory ride next year, so staying at VR46 seems likely. Furthermore, his struggles mean that Bezzecchi probably isn't going to have much luck demanding Ducati gives him a GP25, so status quo is probably the most likely outcome there. It's unfortunate for Bezzecchi, but the sheer reality is that, with all these hot riders on the market, his options seem to be either stay at VR46, or make a more or less lateral move to Trackhouse Aprilia.

Then Franco Morbidelli, another Valentino Rossi academy product, can drop from Pramac into the other VR46 seat.

Where does Fabio DiGiannantonio go then? Well, with Marquez going to the factory, Fabio can now return to Gresini and be reunited with Frankie Carchedi. Thus, restoring the 2023 lineup of Fabio DiGiannantonio and Alex Marquez.

So, to sum things up, I think Ducati can keep all three of its satellite teams and all eight bikes like this:

Ducati Lenovo (GP25): Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.

Pramac (GP25): Enea Bastianini and Fermin Aldeguer.

VR46 (GP24): Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli.

Gresini (GP24): Fabio DiGiannantonio and Alex Marquez.

Maybe Pramac will go to Yamaha after all, maybe my predictions will look radically wrong in a few weeks. I don't know how it'll turn out, but this is the scheme I've thought up in my mind.

I need to do something since with Marc Marquez at Ducati and Jorge Martin at Aprilia, my two favorite teams now have my two least favorite riders and I'm trying not to dwell on that part.

So yeah.

Oh, also this weekend Indycar raced at Detroit, but uhh...the less said about that, the better.

[driveforfive]

this surpasses last year as the most chaotic 500 ive ever seen

[crooked-mile]

NASCAR Drivers As Dog Breeds

Kyle Larson: Chihuahua

Smug, writes too many checks his ass can't cash, needs to shut up

Chase Elliott: Greyhound

Quiet, shy, fast but would like to have a conversation that isn't about going fast once in a while, wants to go home now

Ryan Blaney: Corgi

Short but makes it work, a crowd favorite, handsome and polite, great smile; barks to communicate frustration, anxiety or excitement

Joey Logano: German Shepherd

Knows what his job is and is a little too excited to do it, some aggression issues tempered by age and proper socialization

Bubba Wallace: American Pit Bull Terrier

Misunderstood sweetheart, just wants people to like him, attached at the hip to his best friend, probably a blanket hog

Austin Cindric: Borzoi

Tall, just happy to be here

Tyler Reddick: Jack Russell Terrier

Small but unstoppable, compact size reduces drag, sometimes forgotten about until he nips at your heels

Denny Hamlin: Australian Cattle Dog

Good at what he does but is really fucking annoying about it, becomes destructive if he doesn't receive adequate stimulation

[dozydawn]

[acrosstobear]

mclaren WE. ARE. McLAREN. 🧡 Monaco. Indy 500. Shanghai. It's set to be a special weekend with @.ArrowMcLaren and @.McLarenFE! 💫

[bloodonmybarbieshirt]

FUCK YEAH KYLE LARSON WITH THE DOUBLE DOUBLE

TWO RACE RUINING SOLO SPIN OUTS, TWO HUGE RACES, LESS THAN SIX HOURS APART

[motorsportbarbie13]

No bc wdym they’ve run 70 laps of the Indy 500 and there’s been TWELVE LEAD CHANGES?? WHY IS PATO 12th? IS THE MCLAREN TEAM BOSS GONNA HAVE TO CLIMB INTO THE CAR SO KYLE LARSON CAN RACE IN THE COCA COLA 600???

This is chaotic like what???

[once-and-future-loser]

How I slept last night knowing that Kyle "could beat Max Verstappen in any car" Larson majorly flopped in both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 yesterday.

[grogumaximus]

James Hinchcliffe on the Max Verstappen vs. Kyle Larson debate | The Red Flags podcast

[gentlemanmotorslifestyle]

[sixdegreesofbali]

LOL. He literally can't be bothered.

x

[coimbrabertone]

Winning Streaks in NASCAR

What do you do when a NASCAR race has a disappointing result? Well, you turn it into content I suppose.

Christopher Bell won his third race in a row in what has been a stinker of a start to the 2025 season. First Byron sees the entire field wreck in front of him to snatch the Daytona 500 when, then Bell essentially does the same thing in Atlanta, winning a three-wide photo finish when the caution came out, and then at COTA, Bell charges through the field in the closing laps to take the win.

It got so bad that, leading into Phoenix, the winning drivers had only led a total of nineteen laps. Ouch.

That stat will at least look better now since Bell was probably the best car at Phoenix and spent an annoying amount of the race up front.

This means he's won at a drafting track, a road course, and a mile.

I will begrudgingly admit that shows a diverse range of skills.

That being said, it's also something that's become very rare. Drivers will win a lot of races in a row in something like Formula One or MotoGP because those sports typically see the best racers getting the best machinery and blowing everyone else away.

NASCAR does typically see the best drivers get the best machinery, sure, but it's different.

First of all, there's a lot more cars in NASCAR, and it's a lot easier to be the best of twenty than it is to be the best of thirty-six.

Second of all, ever since the sport started declining in popularity in the late-2000s, NASCAR has done everything they can to encourage competition and a variety of winners.

NASCAR forces teams into smaller and smaller boxes, meaning everyone's running close to the same equipment. NASCAR has stage cautions built into the race to bunch the field up and create chaotic restarts. Even if you do go a lap down, NASCAR has the lucky dog gimmick that lets the first car a lap down when the caution comes out automatically come back to the lead lap.

All of this makes it damn hard to go back-to-back in NASCAR, let alone win three in a row.

One of the biggest contributing factors, I think, is the current playoffs format. Launched in 2014 as the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the current playoff format divided the season into four blocks: first, the twenty-six race regular season, during which, drivers who win get one of the 16 slots in the playoffs.

If less than 16 drivers win, the slots go to the points. If more than sixteen win in the regular season - which hasn't actually happened before, the closest was 2022 - then I believe the winners will be arranged in order of points.

Then there's the elimination blocks: the Round of 16 uses three races to reduce the field to 12 drivers, the Round of 12 uses three races to reduce it to 8, and then the three races in the Round of 8 determine the final four. The Round of 4 is then a one race showdown at the season finale, the winner of which becomes that season's NASCAR Cup Series champion.

So why do I blame this for winning streaks becoming rare?

Two reasons.

One: the win and you're in format means there's little reason to go for multiple wins. Sure, you can get a couple extra playoff points, but the pressure is off.

Two: the win and you're in format also encourages a driver with a bad season to do everything they can to steal a win, even if it means screwing over a better driver. Originally, NASCAR had a rule that you had to be in the top thirty in points to get the playoff slot, but then they removed that rule ahead of the 2023 season.

So, what happened at the 2024 Richmond race? Austin Dillon wrecked the shit out of Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to take a win while being 34th in points, at the time last among full-time drivers.

It was so flagrantly dirty that even NASCAR had to fine him and strip him of his playoff slot.

So, it didn't work in that case, thank God, but Harrison Burton would win Daytona two races later to similarly go from damn near rock bottom in points into locking himself into the top sixteen.

Then, in the very next race, Chase Briscoe won at Darlington to lock himself in as well, despite Stewart-Haas Racing otherwise having a final season from hell.

So yeah, the format breeds chaos.

Case in point, nobody won three races in a row in 2014, the first season of this playoff format. Jimmie Johnson was closest, winning the Coke 600 at Charlotte and then winning the next race at Dover, then finishing sixth at Pocono before winning Michigan to win three outta four races.

Brad Keselowski would also go back-to-back with wins at Richmond and Chicagoland, while Kevin Harvick won the last two races of the season at Phoenix and Homestead.

Three drivers going back-to-back, but none with a threepeat.

Then 2015 changed things, with two threepeats.

First was Kyle Busch, who came back from a leg injury that kept him out of the first eleven races of the season to then win three in a row. Kyle would win in his fifth race back at Sonoma, then finish 17th at the summer Daytona race, but would bounce back to win Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Indianapolis all in a row. So not only three in a row, but four outta five races.

This, combined with the format and a fifth win of the season at Homestead, would get Kyle Busch the championship.

Missing eleven races and then winning the championship is already a problem, but that wasn't even the biggest shitshow in 2015.

That honor goes to the Logano/Kenseth beef.

Matt Kenseth, after spending years dragging a struggling Roush Fenway Racing car to wins, moved to Joe Gibbs Racing for 2013, instantly competing for the championship. 2015 was a similarly good year, with him winning at Bristol, Pocono, Michigan, Richmond, and then at New Hampshire in the Round of 16 to automatically get into the Round of 12.

Joey Logano, meanwhile, drove that JGR #20 before Kenseth did, and when JGR cut him, Logano found a landing spot at Penske, taking over the Shell/Pennzoil #22. 2014 was already a breakout win for Logano, winning five races, but 2015 was shaping up to be even better, as Joey won the Daytona 500, Watkins Glen, and the Bristol Night Race in the regular season, and then kicked off the Round of 12 with a win at Charlotte.

This meant Joey already had a berth into the Round of 8, while Kenseth needed a win after crashing out at Charlotte to squander a pole position and finish 42nd. Kenseth was hoping to avenge that loss at Kansas, while Logano is looking to go back-to-back.

They're battling for the lead at the end of the race...and Logano spun Kenseth out and wrecked him. Logano wins at Kansas, that's two in a row for him.

Then Logano wins at Talladega to sweep the Round of 12, whilst Matt Kenseth is eliminated.

Only Matt Kenseth made sure that Logano had nothing to celebrate, because at the first race of the Round of 8 at Martinsville, Kenseth tangled with the Penskes of Keselowski and Logano, came back out onto the track with a damaged car, and proceeded to wreck Logano. Kenseth would be suspended for the next two races, but Logano would fail to win at Texas or Phoenix, meaning that after winning three in a row in the Round of 12, Logano was eliminated in the Round of 8.

Nobody won three in a row in either 2016 or 2017, but 2018 was a bizarre season where three drivers did.

Kevin Harvick was first, doing the same thing that Christopher Bell did this year and winning three in a row within the first four races in the season. In Harvick's case, it was Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Kyle Busch then matched that feat a few races later, winning Texas, Bristol, and Richmond.

Then Brad Keselowski joined the club, winning at Darlington and Indianapolis to end the regular season before winning the first race of the Round of 16 at Las Vegas.

So which one of them won the championship? None of them.

It was Joey fucking Logano avenging his 2015 season by winning the title. It was one of the weakest paths to the championship too, with him winning Talladega in the regular season, coasting through the Round of 16 and Round of 12, and then winning at Martinsville in the Round of 8 to seal his place in the championship four. Then, it was just a matter of winning at Homestead to take the championship.

Three drivers won three in a row, but Logano won the championship off the back of three wins total.

That's what I mean when I say that none of this matters, because once Harvick, Busch, and Keselowski locked themselves in, those extra wins didn't do anything for them.

It certainly didn't win them the 2018 championship.

Nobody would win three in a row in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, or 2024, but 2021 has an example of the same driver winning three in a row...twice.

Kyle Larson.

Yes, after sitting out most of 2020 after saying a racial slur during an iRacing event on Twitch, Kyle Larson was back in NASCAR, driving the #5 for Hendrick Motorsports...and he put that car to work.

First win of the season came at Vegas, then he'd have to contend himself with a few second places and stage wins before going on his first threepeat run starting with the Coke 600 at Charlotte.

Larson would dominate Charlotte, sweeping all three stages and then taking the win. Sonoma was a similar story, with Larson winning both stages and then taking the win, while at Nashville, Larson decided to keep it modest by only winning stage two and the race, letting former teammate Kurt Busch win stage one while he was in second place.

Larson's fifth win of the season was somewhat controversial as he knocked teammate Chase Elliott out of the way on a restart to win Watkins Glen while Elliott had to be content with second place.

Kyle's sixth win of the season was another one-off, with him winning the Bristol Night Race.

Kyle's seventh win of the season was probably the most impressive, because at one point during that Charlotte Roval race, he was in the pits with his hood up, but Larson would rally to win the race...along with the next two at Texas and Kansas for his eighth and ninth wins of the season. This was his second threepeat.

Finally, Larson would win at Phoenix to make it ten wins and the most dominant season in the modern era.

So...will Bell's threepeat age like Harvick, Busch, and Keselowski's from 2018, or will it turn into an all-time season like Larson's threepeats from 2021?

Only time will tell.