Near-misses add up to points lead for Larson

Kyle Larson says he's still okay with finishing second, but Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway stung. For the third consecutive week, and for the fourth time in the last five races, Larson was the runner-up as someone else celebrated in Victory Lane. Although he only led three laps in the Camping World 500, Larson was in position for the win as the first driver off pit road after the final round of pit stops with six laps to go.

But three other drivers had stayed out, leaving Larson to restart fourth. He then lost ground to eventual winner Ryan Newman in Turn 1 when he was tapped in the left rear by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

"That long run there, before the end, when Kyle [Busch] was leading, obviously, he was way out in front, but I was satisfied with second," Larson said when asked if it was growing old. "I would have been happy running second then than now, being our position on that restart.

"Like I've been saying, we've never had that speed. It's a lot of fun right now. I'm sure if I ran second for the next eight weeks, yeah, it's probably going to grow old. But it's so cool to be one of the fastest cars every week. I feel like I've got a shot to win every week at a racetrack like here and Vegas, where I don't normally run good, and challenge for wins. And Daytona, I suck on superspeedways."

Keeping him out Victory Lane, Larson admitted, was little mistakes or inexperience. In Atlanta, he chose to run the high lane when Brad Keselowski began closing on him, based off strategy from earlier in the race. Sunday, Larson said he should have moved up a lane or two on the restart in order to stay closer to Newman.

"It's weird running all these seconds," Larson said. "It took me, like, three years to finish second in sprint cars. Now I finish second like every week, so ... A little weird, but maybe we'll turn them into wins soon."

The good news for Larson is he accomplished a person goal in Phoenix. With his finish, he moved into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points. In doing so, Larson became the first Chip Ganassi Racing driver to lead the standings at this point in the season since Sterling Marlin in 2002.

"It's been a lot of fun to start this year," Larson said. "I just hope we can continue to work hard, be consistent, be mistake-free on pit road and on the racetrack. If we can just keep doing that, the wins are going to come. I could easily have four wins right now. Just got to keep working hard."