WHY I RACE
Why I Race: Kyle Larson As one of the most versatile drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Larson provides his take on racing, including his preference for running the high line. BY ROB TIONGSON Larson: I just want to be able to win races. If I’m not winning, I want to at least contend for wins each week. I’m with a great organization with a lot of success, fresh off a championship with Chase Elliott. I don’t think there’s any reason why I shouldn’t be able to go out there and contend right away. Maybe there’ll be a few growing pains in the beginning, having not been in a Cup car for so long, and a new team, a new crew chief (Cliff Daniels) that I’ve never worked with before. I’m sure it’ll have its difficult moments, but I’ve got confidence in myself and the team that we’ll be able to go out there and win lots of races and, hopefully, contend for a championship come the end of the season. I’ve always been strong on the intermediate tracks, and I feel like I should still be able to be strong there. What I’m excited about is that I feel like Hendrick Motorsports is really good at the types of venues that I would historically say I struggled at when I was at Ganassi, which have been the road courses and short tracks. So, I think if I can continue to have that speed on the intermediates, and then take their equipment and setups and stuff and be really strong at the short tracks and road courses, I think we’ll be extremely good.
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POLE POSITION 2021
PRESENTED BY
It’d be really, really cool to get a championship with that car and number. There’s so much history with that number with Rick Hendrick. I think it would be special to a lot of us and a lot of people that probably worked on the No. 5 car back in the day at Hendrick. I hope we can do it. I think that we will have a good shot, hopefully this year, and we just gotta make sure we continue to get better each week and execute each week. Hopefully, we can just keep putting ourselves in position. I’m just more comfortable up there (in the high line), and there’s more grip up against the wall, with the way the aerodynamics work and things like that. For me, the sensation is, it’s not that running the bottom or anything’s scary, but I have a better feel for the car when I’m putting the right side of it six inches off the wall because it adds downforce and all that. And I think too with my experience racing the sprint cars, it’s really similar to kind of running a cushion, so I’ve got a lot of experience doing that. But it’s fun. I don’t run the top because I like it; that’s just typically where my car goes the fastest. If my car was faster around the bottom, I would be at the bottom at Homestead. But for me and what my car has been like in the past, I can usually make the most speed up top, so that’s why I go up there. There’s definitely a lot of risk with running up there, but it’s fun at the same time. I always have confidence when I go to Homestead, so that would still probably be the track that I have the most confidence at. I feel like I just know a lot about that race track, and I just have a sense for kind of how you need to drive around there. I think Homestead would be that track that I’ll be confident going to. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to be fast. Ultimately, your car’s still gotta be really good. PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES
