While Kyle Larson starts 17th for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway, he has a victory at this unique 1-miler. (Photo: Landen Ciardullo | The Podium Finish)
AVONDALE, Ariz. — As quickly as Kyle Larson dominated and flexed his muscles last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a bit of reality struck the No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 efforts at Phoenix Raceway.
Mainly, the 31-year-old Elk Grove, California, native has not been as quick off the hauler at the 1-mile track. On Friday, Larson only mustered the 20th fastest time in practice although he was 13th quickest in the 10-lap consecutive average rundown.
Still, Phoenix has been a feast or famine track for Larson in terms of fast cars off the truck. Last year, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was in position to win the spring race, now known as the Shriners Children’s 500.
Starting from the pole, Larson led 201 laps before a couple of Overtime restarts curtailed his efforts, relegating him to a fourth place finish.
Comparably, in the Championship 4 race last November, Larson qualified fourth and hovered inside the top five for the entirety of the 312-lap event. However, he finished third, a position short of winning his second Cup championship.
Results wise, Larson is solid at the quirky 1-miler just outside of Phoenix, with a victory in the 2021 season finale, eight top fives and 12 top 10 results, good enough for an average finish of 11.3. Then again, Larson wants more speed from his car, particularly with the long run against the usual favorites like Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain.
Following the season finale, Larson, along with Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones and Corey LaJoie tested at Phoenix in preparation of the new short track and road course package. Prior to this weekend’s on track activities, Larson observed the takeaways from the season finale and test session that he hoped would help his efforts for Sunday’s 312-lap race.
“There are some things we have talked about to make us better this weekend,” Larson said. “We weren’t as fast as we needed to be last November to win the title. We’ll work on getting more speed out of the car so we can hopefully battle for the win on Sunday.”
So far, the pace has been a bit of a frustrating pursuit for Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels. Nevertheless, Friday’s practice session was critical not only for this weekend, but for the upcoming races at Richmond and Martinsville in the next three to four weeks.
“We’re looking forward to getting back there,” Daniels said. “We had a good test in December with a few things about this new aero package, so a lot to learn this weekend. We need to execute a good practice and hopefully learn some things to do — maybe a few things not to do — to get the car dialed in.
“Last fall, obviously, we weren’t where we wanted to be. We just didn’t have the longer pace that we needed as compared to some other guys. So just trying to find the right balance of the short and the longer pace.”
To this day, Larson and Daniels vividly recall how the No. 5 pit crew delivered on the final pit stop of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, besting Blaney out of pit road. In their case, Larson did not have the pace to stave off Blaney’s quick No. 12 Ford entry, passed with ease for the second position, deciding the title in the waning moments.
Before Saturday’s qualifying session, Larson has been focused on carrying over the momentum from the first three races into thePhoenix race weekend.
It takes a village for Kyle Larson and his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry to be a contender at Phoenix. (Photo: Landen Ciardullo | The Podium Finish)
“Phoenix has been a pretty decent track for our team the last few years since I’ve been with Hendrick Motorsports,” Larson said. “We qualify well, so hopefully that all goes good – get a good start upfront, get good stage points and just keep executing. Our team has done a really good job this year of executing with the race cars that we bring. Our pit crew has been doing a great job.
“It takes everything to be upfront, and I think that’s how we can continue our momentum. Just continue to do what we’ve been doing and just keep ourselves in the hunt.”
If qualifying 17th had Larson shifting gears before the fourth race of the season, think again. After putting a masterclass in Las Vegas, the Californian noted that his mindset changed about 24 hours later following his 24th career Cup win.
“Yeah, I mean I think for me and probably for most drivers and teams, you quickly move on from that, so I’ve really like forgotten about it,” he said. “I would say come Monday afternoon, once my meetings were done, my mind is switched to Phoenix. Sure, I’d rather win than run 20th because I would probably feel better now than I would have if I ran 20th, but I’m not thinking about Vegas of like how to replicate anything.”
Even with the disappointing qualifying result, Larson does not see any weaknesses with his No. 5 team. In this case, he is encouraged by the efforts and preparation put forth at the shop and track to be a threat each race weekend.
“No, I mean I think based off how we’ve executed the first handful of weeks, I’m happy with where all of our team is at,” Larson observed. “The race cars have been really fast. Our pit crew has been performing. I feel like the solid race I was able to put together last week.. like all that was great.
“Sure, you want to get all areas better, if you can. I feel like Cliff does a really good job of leading our team; coaching, prepping and all that. I’m not surprised that we’re executing well right now, but I just hope that we keep it going.”
