Kyle Larson has led the most laps on a single track in his Cup Series career at Dover. But this time, at the single race, Denny Hamlin‘s #11 Camry XSE grabbed the lead with an extremely fast pit stop after Stage 2 and edged out Kyle Larson by 0.256 seconds to clinch his third win of 2024, matching William Byron at the top of the series leaderboard. And even though Larson put on a stellar show, rocketing from P21 to P1 at one point, he wasn’t completely satisfied. Not to forget, he also has one win, seven top-five finishes, and 11 top-10s here.

In his post-race interviews, Kyle Larson suggested that the air-clock phenomenon might have played a role in his near miss, echoing Kyle Busch‘s frustrations. Busch, who started from pole position only to finish fourth, pointed fingers at the next-gen car’s quirks for his performance dip.

Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch are not happy with the not-so-traditional approach in the next-gen cars

Kyle Larson was hot on Denny Hamlin’s tail for the last 25 laps, almost managing to overtake him several times on the mile-long concrete track. Despite Larson’s persistent efforts in his #5 Chevy, he couldn’t quite seal the deal. Hamlin grabbed the lead following a restart with 79 laps to go and managed to hold on to it by consistently blocking Larson at the top of the track.

Larson, being listed as the 5-1 favorite to win at Dover, pointed out the ease of air blocking as a significant factor, explaining, “You’ll get closer to him at the end of the runs, but It’s just so easy to air block, not that he was you know doing anything or anything like that. It’s just, it’s so easy as the leader, especially a place like this to, uh… You just shut off the air on the guys behind you.”

Later, in a chat with Peter Stratta from TSJ Sports, he suggested a possible fix related to the in-car cameras, “It’s really hard to pass the lead car. […] It’s really easy with the cameras and the car, it’s easy to air block. Honestly, if they took the cameras out of the car , that’s probably one of the things that could fix it. Because it’s hard to see in the rearview mirrors. […].” However, he also did not shy away from admitting that without cameras, even he might have ended up in fourth place.

However, Kyle Larson wasn’t the only one griping about the next-gen car; Kyle Busch also had his fair share of issues. Despite having a fast car at Dover, Busch pointed out the frustrating aspects of aero blocking with the new setup. He explained, “I mean at least you can move around [in gen-6 and previous cars], but… The aero blocking is just so bad. It’s so bad. And Everybody knows it and uses it as a defense item and… We lost the straightaway to the 19. That’s what frustrated me the most- he was slower. He was slow. And just would not give me an inch in order to be able to get by about rectus twice off a two.” 

Despite these challenges, Kyle Larson’s P2 finish keeps him firmly in the previous position on the standings table.

#5 won’t have to sweat his P2 finish at Dover

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Denny Hamlin, who led 136 out of 400 laps at “The Monster Mile,” bagged wins at Richmond and Bristol earlier this season, showing he’s in top form for the playoffs. After sliding down a notch to fourth in the standings post-Talladega, he remains in the same spot despite raking in 53 points at Dover.

But Kyle Larson holds steady at the top of the driver standings, keeping his lead after pocketing 51 points from the Dover race. Martin Truex Jr and Chase Elliott, who scored 51 and 40 points, respectively, will continue to hold second and third places.

About the race finish, rounding out the top five were Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott, right behind Truex. The top ten were completed by Noah Gragson, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Daniel Hemric, and Ty Gibbs.