Kyle Larson's Michigan Win over Chase Elliott Is a Preview of NASCAR's Future

It's going to take a while to replace departing superstars Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart in the hearts and minds of NASCAR fans.

The project is well under way, though. Kyle Larson, 24, out-dueled Chase Elliott, 20, to win the Pure Michigan 400. Ryan Blaney, 22, finished fourth.

Mel Evans/Associated Press

In terms of actual driving, the difference in the race was shaped outside the cockpits of the top two finishers. Nine laps remained when the green flag waved for the final time. Both Larson and Elliott, overwhelmed by the urgency of the situation, were too eager. They spun their tires. Brad Keselowski pushed Larson and stuck with him. Blaney pushed Elliott but moved to the outside in an attempt to pass.

Thus was the outcome. Larson won by 1.478 seconds as Elliott found himself occupied by having to get back past Keselowski into second. What Larson put behind him was what NBC Sports' Jeff Burton said with 59 laps remaining.

"This is the part of the race when we have seen this team have problems," he said. "When they have been in position to win a race, this is when the trouble spots have come."

Driver	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Points	Avg. Finish	Laps Led
Larson	24	1	5	8	0	582	16.5	181
Elliott	24	0	7	12	2	628	15.2	163

After finishing, Larson and Elliott were laudably candid.

"Chase and I both spun our tires pretty bad," Larson said. "We both had them lit up down the front stretch. I just got a better push than he did. Brad [Keselowski] stayed with me. He probably could have pulled down and got to my outside. We could have raced, but he gave me a nice push and got us the win."

Pragmatically, the outcome of the season's last race at Michigan International Speedway was perfect. Larson qualified for the Chase, and Elliott, barring wild misfortune in the final two regular-season races, will make it on points.

For Larson, the victory seemed overdue. He needed 99 races to win for the first time. He piled up eight top-five finishes in 2014, his rookie season. All along, Larson has seemed patient and determined. Elliott's career, meanwhile, is only 29 races old, and he has already produced seven top-five finishes. Yet, he is the one who is brutally honest about his own shortcomings.

The moderator of Sunday's post-race media conference tossed an opening softball by asking Elliott to "talk about your run."

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

"Bummer again here," Elliott said after his second second-place finish at the same two-mile track. "I hate to let my guys down is the biggest thing. For the second time, this has happened. I made a mistake early on in the race. I asked my guys to bail me out, and they did. Unfortunately, I didn't do my part again."

When principal owner Chip Ganassi arrived ahead of his victorious driver, he said, "No question the kid [Larson] has talent. He can drive. We had to put a weekend together, if you will."

Larson's talent is so great that some have routinely speculated he would one day move on to a more powerful team than that of Ganassi, Rob Kauffman and Felix Sabates, which fields Chevrolets for Larson and Jamie McMurray. Larson's win in his 99th race ended a drought of 99 races for the Ganassi NASCAR operation, dating back to McMurray's October 20, 2013, victory in Talladega, Alabama.

"His [Larson's] contract came up one time," Ganassi recalled. "I said, 'What do you think about these other teams that are talking to you?' He said, 'They all had a shot at me the first time around and they passed'."

In both Larson and Elliott, who succeeded Gordon this year in Rick Hendrick's Number 24, the sport has two young men of character and impressive maturity for their ages. The same can be said of Blaney, who has helped the historic Wood Brothers team regain its relevance.

"We worked really, really hard to get a win and just hadn't done it," Larson said. "Finally all the hard work by everybody, hundreds of people at our race shop, people who have gotten me through to the [Sprint] Cup Series, it was all paying off."

Larson's innate driving ability rivals that of anyone else on the track. Elliott, the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, shows some of his father's experience, judgment and instruction. He also bears the accompanying expectations of a second-generation prodigy.

The remarkable aspect of Chase Elliott's career to date is not the number of times he has fallen short but rather the frequency of having those lessons to learn. His is a great success story. In terms of numbers, Elliott's rookie season compares favorably with the 1993 rookie season of Gordon, his predecessor at Hendrick Motorsports.

 Asked if he was "frustrated," "disappointed" and if it was difficult to "move on," Elliott said:

"

Yeah. All of the above. For sure, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. If I wasn't, that would mean I didn't care. You know, for me, I just have to try to take the positives out of it and recognize an issue when you see one. There's only one way to fix it, and that's to hit it head on. No need of hiding from it. Just try to fix it. Hope you have more opportunities to improve and show you can do it down the road.

"

Keselowski, whose third-place vista was a scenic one, said, "The guys who ran up front absolutely drove their butts off. I saw Kyle and Chase and everybody else. Their cars were sideways, sometimes smoking the tires through the corners. I think that's what this racing is built on."

Stewart is retiring at year's end. Gordon retired last year but has come back to substitute a few times for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. It's still uncertain when or if Earnhardt will have sufficiently recovered from his concussion to compete. New blood is needed. Old blood is dwindling. Larson, Elliott and 23-year-old Chris Buescher are likely to be in the Chase.

Buescher's status is still uncomfortable, but since he astonishingly won on August 1 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, he only needs to remain in the top 30 in the Cup point standings in order to qualify for the postseason.

The top 30 isn't a lofty plateau. Buescher's Ford started sputtering shortly after he cranked it for the start. He nursed it to 35th place, seven laps behind. He entered the race with a 13-point cushion and left it with a seven-point edge.

In the three races since he won at Pocono, Buescher's average finish is 23.3. If he maintains that modest norm for two more weeks, he will make it.

Wins	Poles	Laps Led	Laps Completed	Avg. Finish
4	5	1,243	6,580	8.9
Ky. Busch	Edwards	Ky. Busch	Bayne	Harvick
Keselowski

Larson is in. Elliott and Buescher are almost locks. What if Blaney, competitive the past two weeks, wins Darlington? If the Chase field defines the sport's elite, then it isn't aging anymore. It is growing quickly more youthful. 

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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.