NASCAR is back at Chicagoland Speedway on July 5 for the first time since 2019. Half the grid has never raced a Cup car on this 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, Illinois. For Kyle Larson, the place means something specific.
He and Kyle Busch put on one of the best final laps anyone had seen in years. Busch died in May 2026. Coming back to that same track, Larson said something simple that stuck.
"Wish he was there this weekend."
The race was July 1, 2018. Busch had led the final 59 laps and had a second on Larson. Lapped traffic erased it. On the last lap, Larson threw a slide job into Turn 1, the kind of move you see on dirt tracks. He dove to the bottom, slid up, and sent Busch into the outside wall.
He had the lead. Then Busch pinned the throttle, drove into the back of Larson's car in Turn 3, and spun him sideways. Busch squeezed through and won by 0.256 seconds. Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost his mind on the broadcast.
That call was surely one of the most replayed moments in recent NASCAR history. On the cool-down lap, both drivers stuck a thumbs-up out their windows at each other.
"I got into Kyle first, he got into me in Turn 3, and I was okay with that," Larson said. "I initiated the contact and all of that."
Here is the part that people do not talk about enough. Larson said losing that race was actually the right outcome. It wasn't so much from the perspective of getting points, but something much deeper.
"I'm glad that I didn't win that race because I think it would have changed the trajectory of his respect level for me. After that race, I felt like he gained a ton of respect for me. How I handled myself, congratulating him, having a smile, having his back in the interview."
Busch was the benchmark for Larson. Not one of them. The one.
"Kyle Busch is just a guy that I've always respected more than anybody in the field. He always pushed me to be better, and I always tried to level up when I was around him."
Larson has not won a Cup race in 42 starts. His last one was Kansas, May 2025. Sunday adds another layer to it. Chicagoland hosts Round 2 of NASCAR's In-Season Challenge, a single-elimination bracket race. Larson draws his own teammate, William Byron. Win the whole tournament, and there is a million dollars at the end of it.
He has good reason to feel comfortable here. Among active drivers with multiple starts at Chicagoland, Larson has the best average finish in the track's history at 6.17. He also ran Goodyear's two-day tire test at this track back in April.
Very few drivers got that opportunity. Kyle Larson 's teammates Byron, Chase Elliott, and Alex Bowman all said they took his setup notes and built off them directly. Friday practice confirmed it. He was one of the fastest cars on the board.
The track is rough. The asphalt is old and heavily bumped, especially through Turns 3 and 4. The Next Gen car is stiff by nature, which makes those bumps worse. Crew chief Cliff Daniels ran softer springs, adjusted the shock valving, and raised the ride height slightly to give the underbody room to clear the worst sections.
The tire test told them the track actually held grip better than expected despite its age, so they leaned into car stability rather than tire preservation. The biggest threat for him is Denny Hamlin. He also ran the tire test and is simply the best in the business at managing tires on intermediate tracks over a long run.
But Larson knows this place better than almost anyone in the field. And this particular weekend, he has more on his mind than just snapping a winless streak.
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The post "Wish He Was There"- Kyle Larson Unmasks Bitter Chicagoland Reality That Saved His Secret Bond With Kyle Busch appeared first on EssentiallySports . Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
