“I don’t know if it’s the car’s fault, the rule’s fault, the driver’s fault, the engine’s fault, NASCAR’s fault, I don’t know.” This is how Richard Petty reacted to the Talladega race, where the Next Gen car’s flaws were out in the open. Aero-heavy design with the spoiler, a packed underbody, and reduced horsepower has resulted in speedway racing into a fuel mileage affair. The only place drivers made any gains was on the pit road. And unfortunately, the traditional short tracks are facing a similar issue, where passing a race car is a tall order. For all the complaints and backlash that surround this new machine, if there’s one place the Next Gen platform delivers, is the mile-and-a-half tracks.

Last weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway was indeed entertaining. Kyle Larson blew past his competition, leading 221 of the 267 laps, bagging his third race win of the season. Not to forget, he swept the stages as well and now sits at the top of the points standings going into the All-Star weekend. Well, we’ve seen this trend before at Bristol, right? So, how was the Kansas race any better with one driver dominating the show? And the answer is that Larson wasn’t the only one in contention to win the race; it’s just that he was able to execute, while his rivals ran into trouble.

The numbers and statistics don’t always paint a clear picture of what actually happened in the race. And this his what King Petty believed, where he cast his vote in Jeff Gluck’s poll: Was Kansas a good race?

Richard Petty, sharing his thoughts on the race via Instagram, answered Gluck’s poll, “Overall, yes. Okay, there was always that chance of that second place car catching that first place car.” Meanwhile, former NASCAR crew chief Dale Inman said, “Yeah it was a good race. It was interesting, you know. Television only lets you see what they showed, but if you was sitting in the grandstand, you could look. I’m sure you could look somewhere and find somebody really racing”

Chase Elliott was one of the prime contenders to win the race. A strong pit stop helped him gain the lead to start the final stage, and he was trying his best to keep Larson in his rearview mirror. On lap 195, a caution was waved as Brad Keselowski had a flat tire, and this event in turn led to Elliott’s downfall. Heading in the pit lane as the lead car, everything looked on cue for him until his jackman, TJ Semke, dropped the jack early. The right rear tire wasn’t secure, which led to re-jacking and securing the lug nut on the wheel. The 14-second pit stop saw Elliott restart in 16th place, and just like that, his day was done.

Keselowski was another contender who was closing in on Elliott, but with both of them out of the picture, the No. 5 car had clean air and the rest of the drivers playing catch-up. Even Denny Hamlin believed he could’ve taken the fight to Larson if his car hadn’t run into problems with the clutch and forced him to park his car. Well, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the HMS driver as his title rival Christopher Bell was making ground on him, and who knows, with a lap or two more in the race, we could’ve had a different winner.

Kyle Larson was right on the edge at Kansas

At the end of the 49-lap green flag run, Larson was going full throttle and pushing his race car to make maximum speed. It wasn’t an easy task as he had to manage his right side tire, while Christopher Bell was on a hot pursuit to make a pass on him for the lead. On the final few laps, the two-second lead was cut down to just 0.712 seconds and that was enough for Larson to seal the deal.

“I was trying really hard to pace myself, because I believe that was our longest run of the day. I don’t know if it was paying off or not at the end. I was still struggling. I don’t know if the right front was starting to wear a lot or what, but I was starting to lose a lot of grip, and then I was vibrating really bad, so I was afraid a right rear or something would let go.” Larson said after the race.

So the observation that Richard Petty made about the number two car being in the hunt for the lead was indeed true. It came down to a strategy call, and the #5 team made no mistake in executing their race. Things could’ve gone south for them, but they stayed in the fight and snaged the victory. This was Larson’s consecutive win on Kansas after last year’s closest ever finish at the track, and he is going to be a threat on other 1.5-mile tracks.