Kyle Larson chats with crew chief Cliff Daniels during Saturday’s qualifying session for the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Despite scoring an empathic victory at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 7, 2021, Kyle Larson and his No. 5 team want to elevate their performance at the 1-mile, D-shaped speedway.
In the past six races at Phoenix, Larson’s best result is third in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, coming up a point short of winning the title to Ryan Blaney, the series victor.
Top five finishes may be satisfactory for most drivers and teams at a track that may stymie them, but that does not satiate Larson, crew chief Cliff Daniels and his brigade.
Ahead of Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500, Larson considered the approach for his team and the Hendrick Motorsports organization for Phoenix.
“Based on where we finished in the past few finales, I think Hendrick Motorsports as a whole wants to improve at Phoenix,” Larson said in a team press release. “We’ve had good runs and I know Cliff and everyone on the [No.] 5 team and Hendrick Motorsports are working hard so that we can take a step up in Phoenix.”
Typically, Phoenix has suited the likes of Team Penske with Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney excelling. Larson has led the third most laps in the past six races, trailing Logano in this category by 82 laps (298-216). In that same span, Larson, with three top fives and four top 10s, has the sixth best average finish at 11.3.
The cars may have changed and the field has an added wrinkle (or two) with the prime, standard tires and option, softer tires. On Saturday, it seemed the falloff for the two tire compounds was negligible.
Kyle Larson found some long run pace during Saturday’s practice session for the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
During Saturday’s practice session, Larson was the 26th fastest overall but he was the 11th fastest in a 10-lap consecutive average run. Logging 68 laps, the pace of Larson’s car improved over a long run.
Admittedly, Larson admits Phoenix has been a challenging track for him and his team from a setup standpoint. In some races, they have dominated before falling off toward the end of a run or missed the setup completely. Starting 17th, Larson hopes his team has found the balance between handling and pace to contend on Sunday.
“I think for how much we dominated ’21, that was definitely not like a fluke style championship,” Larson observed. “So where I feel like in the Next Gen era, it’s not that they’re a fluke, but it’s much tougher even than it was already extremely tough before.
“There’s just a lot more factors that play into it. And right now, I feel like we could win a bunch of races, but Phoenix has been a tough track on us. But we’re going to work hard at it. We get to go to Phoenix and hopefully we’ll have a good balance there. And then that’ll show us kind of how the rest of our season looks.”
Sunday’s race may offer a glimpse with how Larson and his team fair at the traditional tracks, or at least as normal of a track after two weeks at drafting-style tracks and the road course in Del Valle, Texas.
Kyle Larson has his work cut out for him with a midfield starting position for the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
On Sunday, it is a matter of choosing the right tire compound for track position and optimal car performance, a difficult matter in terms of truly deciphering the car’s performance.
“A lot of grip in the reds, for sure. And then once you go to the yellows, it feels fairly normal, I guess,” Larson pointed out to NASCAR on Prime Video’s Larry McReynolds. “It’s hard to really get a true read when it’s on different rubber.
“When you go back to yellows, it feels completely different and you don’t really trust maybe what you feel which everybody’s got the same thoughts running through their minds.”
Starting midfield and likely needing some pit stops to be in the mix, Larson offered a somewhat optimistic outlook with his chances when speaking with McReynolds.
“I thought my HendrickCars.com Chevy was pretty decent. So, we’ll see,” he added. “We’ve gotta make smart decisions when you have two different tires like that. So we’ll talk about it a lot more when we get through qualifying, and we’ll see what kind of adjustments that need to be made.”
