Kyle Larson hopes to apply some lessons learned from last year’s AdventHealth 400 to win his second Kansas Cup race. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Although Kyle Larson only has one win at Kansas Speedway, he came close to making it two in last year’s AdventHealth 400.
Inside the final 10 laps, Larson and Kurt Busch waged in a spirited tussle with both drivers unrelenting to give up the number one position. Alas, Busch outwitted Larson off Turn 2 with a power move, leaving his former Chip Ganassi Racing teammate to a runner-up result.
This year, Larson finds himself starting second for Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), an impressive feat considering how the track conditions changed greatly between the Group B and final qualifying rounds.
In this case, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro was nearly good enough to win the pole, missing out on the number one spot by just 0.006 seconds.
All things considered, he gave it everything he had on the hot and slick 1.5-mile speedway.
“A huge thank you to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Cool to be on the front row there with William (Byron),” he said to FOX NASCAR’s Regan Smith. “(I) wish I could’ve went a little bit better. I need to look at the data to see where I gave up a little bit of time to him.
“Overall, I felt good about my lap. I’m happy to be on the front row.”
Despite the strong qualifying effort, he and crew chief Cliff Daniels hope to improve their car when it comes to the 267-lap race. Namely, the 2021 fall race winner hopes to have something to show for against Chevrolet’s rival OEM teams.
Larson hopes his car can be hooked up in race trim. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
“I still feel like we’ve got on our car quite a bit for race trim,” he said. “I thought the Toyotas were much better. I know my lap times look alright, but I’m trying way too hard to have to go that fast.
“So, we’ll get working on it here. It’s great to qualify second, get a good pit stall selection and, hopefully, have a clean race.”
Naturally, the 2021 Cup champion favors running the outside line, right against the wall. It may not be a total surprise to see him there in the early going, but he does not dismiss how the hot conditions may throw a few curveballs that have not been seen with this Gen-7 car at Kansas.
“I think very early on, I mean, on Lap 1, we’ll probably be up there,” he said. “So, the hotter temperatures, too, I think, lends itself to move up there. Maybe with it being so hot though, it could slow the pace down enough to where the other lanes develop.
“It didn’t seem that way yet in practice, but we didn’t run very long either. I love Kansas and I love running against the wall.”
As much as Larson loves running the high line, of course, he hopes to avoid getting a Kansas stripe knowing how his teammate and pole sitter, Byron, already grazed it in Saturday’s practice session.
“William’s already got it once, so maybe we could both try to keep it out of the wall and battle for a win,” Larson said.
