Larson got ahead of Martin Truex Jr after the two made their final green-flag pitstop of Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International and moved out to a big lead.
But over the final 15 laps Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team-mate, Chase Elliott, began running down the leader andpassed Truex for second place on lap 82 of 90.
In the last three laps, Larson had to navigate a lot of lapped traffic in front him while keeping an eye on the approaching Elliott behind him. He took the white flag to start the final lap with a 2.8-second lead ahead of Elliott and held his nerve to take the chequered flag with by 2.4s.
The win left Larson in a tie with Denny Hamlin in the series points lead, but he would claim the regular season title – and the 15 playoff points that come with it – by tiebreaker (which is number of wins).
“Chase was already catching me pretty quick. When I caught those four (lapped) cars and got in to (Anthony Alfredo), I looked in my mirror and thought (Elliott) would be right on me but thankfully I had a comfortable-enough gap where I could make a mistake like that,” Larson said.
“I want to say big apology to Christopher Bell. I was inside but I wasn’t inside enough and I needed to have my nose a few feet further ahead and I ended up turning him. I race with him a lot. He’s probably the one guy I race with the most in all my racing. I hate I turned him like that – we’ve had incredible races together.
“Another amazing car. I knew from about lap three after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we had a car that could win today.”
Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro
Photo by: Patrick Savage / NKP / Motorsport Images
The win is the fifth this year for Larson – a career-best in a season – and the 11th win of his career.
Truex finished third with Kyle Busch fourth as Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were William Byron, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick.
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