NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 15, 2016
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his progress and challenges this year, racing at New Hampshire, his view on safety and concussions, other races he enjoys during the year, his wish to some day race in the Indy 500, and more. Full Transcript:
“I’m excited about next week; but first off we’ve got to have a good weekend here. We struggled here last year. I was really good my first season in Cup; but this is probably our worst race track. We’re not off to a good start here in practice. We were off a little bit, but you know me, as well. This track is just tough for me. We’re looking at some notes and stuff. Jamie (McMurray) is pretty quick so I’ve been talking to him a little bit after practice and trying to learn as much as I can. We’re just hoping for a good weekend. We’ve been getting closer and closer in the points and getting in position to make the Chase, so we’ve just got to keep working hard and be consistent and not have any bad races and hopefully can get there.”
DALE JR.’S NEWS TODAY REALLY SURPRISED A LOT OF PEOPLE. AS A DRIVER, WERE YOU SURPRISED? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS REGARDING CONCUSSIONS? HAVE YOU EVER COME CLOSE TO GETTING ONE?
“Hat’s off to Junior for making that choice on his own, I guess, to sit this weekend out and kind of work on getting himself better. It’s a new and cool opportunity for Alex Bowman. You hate to see it be of that nature, but NASCAR does a great job with making these cars safer and safer. We have some good doctors we can all go see if we are not feeling right. We have impact tests and things like that to make sure we are 100 percent. Obviously he knew something was wrong and he took the actions upon himself to go see doctors and ultimately sit this weekend out. So, I hope he gets better soon. It’s definitely weird to see somebody else in the No. 88 car, but he’ll be back quickly, I hope, and can have a good rest of the year.”
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A CONCUSSION?
“I’ve wrecked a lot, for sure. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an actual concussion. I’m sure we’ve all probably had minor ones. You’ve probably had minor ones yourself. I don’t know, though. I know for a fact I’ve never had a major concussion. But it’s always something you’ve got to keep an eye on. Whenever I’ve wrecked hard with this NASCAR stuff, I’ve gone to take the impact test and make sure everything is right with me. Safety is the number one thing for all of us racers. Concussions have become a big deal here the last few years.”
YOU ARE RACING AT ELDORA NEXT WEEKEND. SOME OF THE FOCUS WILL BE ON RICO ABREU CONSIDERING HE’S RACING THERE ALL WEEKEND THIS WEEKEND. HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS HOW HE’S DOING IN HIS FIRST YEAR OF TRUCK RACING? HOW LONG WOULD YOU EXPECT IT TO TAKE FOR HIM TO ADAPT TO WHERE HE FEELS HE CAN BE IN THE TOP-5 OR TOP-10 EVERY WEEK?
“Man, Rico….he almost won Texas a few weeks ago, so that was cool. He’s only been racing for less than 10 years. He’s 24 now. I think he started when he was 16. It’s always taken him a year or two to get things rolling where he can be consistent and figure out how to win, but once he does, he’s as good as it gets. In Sprint Cars it took him three years probably and now he’s considered a favorite every time he goes to the race track. He’ll learn a lot throughout this year of Truck racing and hopefully by the end of the year he’ll be consistently in the Top 10. I think he was making a lot of improvements there within himself and his race team up until the fire at their shop. Now I think they’ve lost a lot of their trucks and resources and things, so you’ve seen his performance kind of fall off a little bit here lately. But, I think once they get the shop all finished up and get some new trucks built, he’ll be back to run up front Texas was a cool one for him. I didn’t think he’d get that close to winning a race that early in his Truck career. But, you know, at the 1.5-tracks; well he has a similar driving style to me. I think I do better on 1.5-mile tracks and Rico also does. He’ll have some good tracks coming up soon and maybe he can get a win or two.”
ONCE UPON A TIME, GUYS LIKE ANDRETTI AND RUTHERFORD AND FOYT RAN SPRINT CARS DURING THE WEEK AND JUMPED IN INDYCARS ON THE WEEKEND. IF YOU WERE IN A SPRINT CAR, THAT’S WHAT YOU ASPIRED TO DO WAS TO RUN THE INDY 500. WHEN YOU STARTED, DID YOU HAVE THOSE ASPIRATIONS? DO YOU HOPE MAYBE TO BE ABLE TO DO THE INDY 500 ONE DAY?
“Well yeah, I love racing any type of car any day of the week. I don’t get to do it a whole lot any more. That’s kind of what I did my whole career growing up; or at least in my bigger car racing. So from the time I was probably 15, I would just race anything I could, any day of the week. I still race my Go Kart every once in a while and still get to run a handful of Midget Races. I would love to run an Indy 500 some day. I probably need to focus on the NASCAR stuff more before I think about doing that. I’m still winless in the Cup series, so I need to probably accomplish that before I can do the Indy 500. But, I would love to. Chip (Ganassi) has great IndyCar equipment. His guys that work on all that stuff do a really good job. They’re always a favorite when they go to the Indy 500. So, hopefully some day I can run the Indy 500. I think it’s the biggest race in the world. It’s bigger than our Daytona 500 or Brickyard 400 or any of those races. I’d love to have the opportunity just to start that race some day.”
THIS IS GOING TO BE A FIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER TO MAKE THE CHASE. AS TIME GOES ON, DO YOU LOOK BACK AT THE DOVER RACE AS ANY TYPE OF MISSED OPPORTUNITY? IF THAT RACE WERE TOMORROW OR LATER, WOULD YOU RACE MATT KENSETH ANY DIFFERENTLY KNOWING HOW HARD IT IS TO QUALIFY FOR THIS CHASE?
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I respect Matt a lot. Obviously had I moved him and got the win I’d be in the Chase right now. But, I don’t know. I feel like I raced him the way I should race people and the way I want to be raced and the way I feel like Matt would have raced me. And I know Matt will race me like that from here on out. So, I feel like I did the right thing. But, yes I’m working hard still to be in the Chase, but Matt Kenseth, to me, is one of the cleanest, nicest, best race car drivers there is in the garage area. And, like I said, I think I did the right thing.”
IT WAS UNFORTUNATE WE DIDN’T GET TO HEAR FROM YOU ON TUESDAY AT INDY, BUT WHAT KIND OF STUFF DID YOU TRY WITH YOUR CAR? HOW DID YOUR CAR FEEL? WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR NEXT SUNDAY’S RACE THERE?
“I thought the Indy test went well. The fist day we struggled with being a little bit tight, I thought. And then at the very end of the day, even with the track kind of cooling down, I thought we made some pretty big improvements. The second day we were pretty good. I think we had like the third fastest lap. I was right there with (Kevin) Harvick. In long-run stuff, I thought we were okay as well. So, anytime you go to a track to test and spend a couple of days testing, it seems like, for us, we’re always pretty good when we go back to race. So, I’m looking forward to the Brickyard. Indy is a cool track. It’s tough to pass, but it’s fun. I have lots of friends there from my USAC days, so I always look forward to it.”
ARE YOU STARTING TO GET A BETTER HANDLE ON HOW TO RUN THIS TRACK? HOW ARE YOU WORKING WITH (CREW CHIEF) CHAD (JOHNSTON) TO ADDRESS THOSE ISSUES?
“Well, I would say ‘no’, considering my stats here. In 2012, ‘13, and ’14 I was really good. This was my best statistical track from K&N to Xfinity and then to Cup. I got a second and a third my first year. And then last year we were really, really bad. This was our worst track. So I didn’t have a ton of confidence coming into this, but practice; we didn’t get a whole lot of laps, but practice didn’t go great for us and our No. 42 team, but we made a race run there at the end and I thought we got better. We had decent lap times. In qualifying trim, we were way off. But, it’s just a tough track. It’s like a big Martinsville. I know I ran good at Martinsville earlier this year, but I’m not normally good there. I don’t know. Like I said, it’s just tough. Its different than a lot of the race tracks we go to and we’ve just got to work hard at getting better. I think since NASCAR has killed the horsepower, that’s kind of what’s hurt me the most here. I’ve just probably got to get better on my end more so than the car.”
NOW THAT YOU’VE PUT TOGETHER A GOOD STRETCH OF RACES, DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE WHOLE ORGANIZATION HAS TURNED THE CORNER?
“Yeah, you know when we had those couple of good races, Kansas and Dover, around that time, we made a lot of changes prior to that. We didn’t really know if our cars were that much better. We just got lucky, or whatever. It seems like now we’re pretty competitive each weekend. So, yeah, I think we’ve partly turned the corner. We still have a long ways to go to be consistently contending for the Top 8’s and Top 5’s. But it’s a lot better than where we started the year when we were hoping for Top 20’s, I felt like. We’ve definitely gotten our stuff way quicker and better in the long run. We’ve still got to work on the long-run stuff. Last week, you could see that we were good on short runs but on long runs we were bad. But yeah, it’s fun now to show up at the race track knowing that you’re going to be somewhat competitive. Early in the year I was not excited to be at the race track. So, it’s been fun now. We’ve just got to keep working hard.”
WHEN YOU SATELLITE RACE WITH YOUR SPRINT CAR AND MIDGETS AND STUFF LIKE THAT, DO YOU HAVE TO GET PERMISSION FROM GANASSI TO DO THAT? AND IN LIGHT OF DALE EARNHARDT JR’S INJURY, DOES THAT TURN UP THE HEAT ON THAT? YOU’VE GOT KNOXVILLE COMING UP, TOO
“Yeah, I definitely have to get permission. I give them a list early in the year of races I want to run. Obviously that stuff kind of changes if rainouts happen, then I can run a different one and stuff like that. But, this year I’m trying to only run about 20 or 25 and I’m already almost to that. It’s not like Dale got hurt in a Sprint Car. So, I don’t think that matters. But obviously the thought is always there, I’m sure, on Chip’s end of getting injured or something like that. To me, I don’t think about anything like that when I’m out there racing. If I was worried about getting hurt, I wouldn’t do it. And if I was worried about it and I was racing still, I probably wouldn’t’ be very competitive. So, I just try to have fun when I do that stuff. I’m looking forward to the Nationals. I got to run it a couple of times. We’ve been really good in the Sprint Car whenever I’ve ran this year. It’s a tough race, though. Hopefully we can get a win in the Cup series before so we don’t have to worry about anything crazy happening.”