NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY MEDIA DAY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 12, 2020
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Daytona 500 Media Day Highlights:
YOU WON 10 RACES DURING THE OFF SEASON, IS THAT CORRECT?
“Yeah, I think it was 10 out of 20. So, that was a good little average there. I didn’t expect to win that much, so it was cool to get into the double-digits in just a couple of months. It’s always fun when you can get to the double-digits.”
HAS NASCAR HAD ANY CONVERSATIONS WITH YOU ON THE 2021 SCHEDULE?
“No, I haven’t. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t really discussed much of anything with anybody. I’ve heard some exciting stuff, but I don’t really remember off the top of my head.”
IS RACING THE CUP SERIES ON DIRT FEASIBLE?
“I think everybody would expect me to be in favor of it. But I don’t think we belong on dirt. I’ve ran the truck race and it was fun. I don’t know, it’s not a sprint car on dirt. I just prefer Cup to stay on pavement.”
“I’ve ran the truck race; the tires and the stuff that we run, it’s just so slow. It just doesn’t feel like dirt to me. I think if we could use better tires and stuff like that that are built for dirt racing, not that what they run at Eldora isn’t, but I think it could be a better tire to where we have more grip and can move around. Also, the track needs to have some moisture so we aren’t worried about getting dirt on the windshield and stuff like that. I think there is a lot of stuff they could tweak to make the dirt racing better and then maybe I would be more in favor of it. As far as right now, I would hope that it would just stay on pavement.”
IS THERE A MOMENTUM THAT COMES FROM DOING THESE RACES BEFORE SPEEDWEEKS?
“It’s been a pretty not-successful Florida trip. Volusia was really bad, as far as early in the night stuff. I had a fourth and another good run before my tire went down. I expected to be a lot better there, so it was honestly pretty frustrating. It was nice to go to East Bay last night and get a win to kind of help my attitude for all this stuff. Winning definitely helps, so if I would have gone to East Bay and struggled like we did at Volusia, I would be pretty miserable right now.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE OTHER UPCOMING RACES? LAST YEAR, DID THE RACING GET BETTER AS THE YEAR WENT ON WITH THAT PACKAGE?
“I don’t know if it got better or worse, but it was better than what I expected it to be starting last season. Being used to high horsepower and all that, I was pretty negative about it, inside anyways. I thought it raced better than I thought it would and it was still fun. The restarts were more intense than I thought they would be. You could still pass. I felt like passing got easier throughout the season once everybody got their stuff a little bit better and driving better. I’m excited to get to the west coast just to see how our new bodies and stuff stack up against the rest of the field.”
SOME PEOPLE SAY THE RACING REALLY STARTS AFTER DAYTONA. DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU’RE DONE WITH THE WEST COAST SWING YOU WILL HAVE AN INDICATION WHERE YOU’RE AT?
“In previous years, you would get to Atlanta and then the west coast swing, so maybe it will be another week or two after the west coast swing until you really understand how you are. Probably through Atlanta and Homestead you’ll get a good idea of how your team is going to stack up and how much work you really need to put in to try to get better. I look forward to the Daytona 500, but I always look forward to getting through it and into the thick of our season and the tracks that we’re going to run at the majority of the year. We have a new body, so I’m just excited to try that out at intermediate tracks.”
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“I did very little of it in the Clash the other day. Everybody’s stuff was damaged, so it was kind of hard to really have an opinion on if it was better or what. I thought it was a little bit better. I thought when I pushed the 20, I think down the backstretch, it was more stable for me to push him. I got pushed at some point throughout the race. It was still a little edgy, which I think everybody is. But as far as me pushing, I felt like it was a little easier than before.”
DO YOU THINK THE TANDEM WILL PLAY MORE OF A ROLE?
“Yeah; it’s such a long race, too, that I think you need to pick and choose when you do it. You can see the Fords and Toyotas, they do it really well. I don’t think our bumpers have lined up great in the past to be able to do that, but now maybe we can join them in that kind of drafting.”
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“I feel like every year, people are always assuming stuff about my contract and all that. I don’t know, obviously dirt racing is important to me and, also, just being with a competitive organization is the number one thing. I want to be able to win races consistently, run up front consistently and battle for championships year-after-year. I feel like at Chip Ganassi Racing, we are very close to being able to contend for championships year in and year out. I feel like we’ve got a great group of people. It will be an interesting year as it plays out. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.”
WHAT POINT IN THE YEAR DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE SERIOUS ABOUT EXPLORING YOUR OPTIONS?
“I don’t know. It’s my first time going through it, so I don’t know. You guys are the professionals (laughs).”
NASCAR IS MAKING A BIG EFFORT TO GET TO THE GRASS ROOTS. WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY COULD DO TO GET THE GRASS ROOT FANS BACK TO NASCAR?
“They are working on it. I think it gets better each year. You can see the effort that they put in with everything, it’s not like they’re not trying. I think even with all of their lower-tier series that NASCAR and ARCA owns, I think it all benefits in getting grass root fans back involved in this. I feel like I’ve seen an improvement in it. I think myself, at least from the dirt track side of things, Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, everyone that’s involved in dirt racing and in NASCAR, bring a lot of fans and eyes to the sport. I like feeling like we’re making an impact.”
HAS YOUR STRATEGY FOR THIS RACE CHANGED?
“I don’t know. I think my strategy has probably changed year after year, I just don’t really know it. I like that whatever the strategy is, to try to get to the finish is the one you try to do. I haven’t quite figured that out, but we’ll see if this year is any different.”