NASCAR CUP SERIES CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES JULY 3, 2026 |
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland Speedway. The teammates will face off in Round Two of the In-Season Challenge. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
NASCAR CUP SERIESCHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTESJULY 3, 2026 |
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland Speedway. The teammates will face off in Round Two of the In-Season Challenge. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
Media Availability Quotes: This has got to be a blast competing against each other because normally your teammates. You want each other to do well and all that, but now all of a sudden, you’re going to be competing against each other. At end of the day, it’s for a million dollars, but it’s not going to be affecting the season. Talk about the fact that you’re teammates and you’re going to be racing each other and how much fun it’s probably going to be.Kyle Larson: “I mean, I was hopeful to see somebody worse than William (Byron) when I saw the match-up (laughs). But no, I think honestly right now, it’s just cool to have something like this going on in the middle of the season; have a chance to advance, try to execute solid finishes and have a chance at a million dollars. Last year, I got wrapped up in a wreck at Atlanta and didn’t really get to compete. But it was fun to follow along; fun to follow everybody advancing and Ty Dillon making it as far as he did. You know, there’s always some cool stories throughout it, and I think that was the objective of it. So, yeah, I mean, it’d be fun to go heads up with William, but it’s really not something that you’re too focused on in the race. I think you’re always just kind of focused on winning, and if you win, that takes care of it. But yeah, I mean, as it gets closer to the race, I think you pay a little bit of attention to it. But we’re just trying to do a good job every weekend” William Byron: “Yeah, I mean, I think you just don’t get too consumed with it. For us, we’re trying to get a bunch of points this weekend. We’re pretty far down (in the standings), so we just have to get things rolling. I feel like Kyle always runs well at mile-and-a-halves, so we’re just trying to get up there and mix it up. But there’s 38 other guys out there, too, so trying to focus on just being fast enough.” We have such a larger sample size of season behind us to look at how the racing has evolved or changed with this championship format. There was a lot of talk going into this year about how maybe there’s not going to be as much going for broke or maybe there will be because of the 15 extra points for winning a race. Has this format changed, in any fundamental way, how you guys approach a season or try to build towards winning a championship or contending for a championship?William Byron: “Yeah, I think to look at it optimistically — I mean, look at what’s happened between the top-two the last four or five weeks, so I think there’s a lot of a lot of reward for winning races. You know, we’ve always tried to get as many points as we can. I think the points system has made that more conscious through the field. But we’ve still seen a lot of chaotic races, too, where it seems like the emotions of the race and kind of being in the middle of the pack is just even more chaotic than ever. The way the Next Gen races play out, you just have to be really aggressive to get track position, so I feel like it’s every bit as much of a crash fest in the middle of the field than it’s been. But yeah, there’s just an emphasis on stage points, and if you can win a few races, it’s a big deal. It changes the points a lot.” Kyle Larson: “Yeah, for me, I’ve felt this way all year — I know a lot of media keeps trying to push this narrative that the racing is different now that points matter, but I don’t think the racing has changed at all. I think it still is, as he mentioned, as chaotic as it has always been. We were still racing for points before. I will say, though, that what I’ve appreciated throughout it is I can pull up Jayski right after the race and see the points and actually know where everybody’s at. It was really confusing before. With the old system, you basically just waited until after Daytona and see where you’re at. Now, it’s fun to follow along; see what drivers are around the cutoff to make the Chase and all that. So, yeah, you pay attention to the points more, but I wouldn’t say the points are any more important than they were and the racing has not changed.” I didn’t realize that in (turns) 3 and 4, there was that very black line. Is that more grip or less grip there, based on what you saw at the test?Kyle Larson: “I never ran up there. I was scared because it’s just really rough in (turns) 3 and 4. I kind of found a comfy line on the bottom and tried not to leave it. At a normal track, it would be more grip. But I don’t know. We’ll see when we get there. I think it’s so narrow that it’d be hard to really make a huge difference. But typically, fresher pavement, newer pavement, would be more grip.” Do you think you guys will migrate to the top over the course of the weekend here? Do you think you’ll be running the top on Sunday?Kyle Larson: “Yeah, I don’t know. We will see. I think the O’Reilly Series will be able to move around better than us because I think they’ll be able to handle the bumps better than our cars do. At the test, there was so much grip. It just stayed fast, so I just don’t think you would want to give up that distance. And with that distance, you just have to run way harder through the bumps. In those conditions, I don’t foresee us moving up. But that was with three cars at the test with a little cooler conditions. So hotter conditions, more cars, more rubber on the track; the pace should hopefully be slower and maybe then we can move up. But yeah, I never ventured up in 3 and 4 just because I was too nervous to.” You’ve tested here. You’ve done well here in the past. What’s your confidence level coming back here? And when you come in here, how often do you think about your duel with Kyle (Busch) in 2018 at the end of the race? Kyle Larson: “Well, yeah, I mean, it’s a mile-and-a-half, so any mile-and-a-half, I have some confidence going to before the weekend starts. And then after practice, you kind of realize where you’re at. But I would say getting to test here, I feel like we learned a lot about our race car that has benefited the four of us as we’ve moved on from it. So, yeah, I think just extra laps here gives some confidence. But everybody’s so good. They’re going to get up to speed fast. Touching on the battle with Kyle (Busch), I’ve watched it a lot here lately because we were coming here again. You know, I watched it before coming to test while Kyle was still alive at that time. And then since his passing, you watch it with different meanings. It was a really neat battle. It’s always fun to be a part of battles that still to this day get replayed, and I’ve been a part of a few. So, yeah, I just wish he was here for obvious reasons and we could have another battle.” How do you evaluate the state of the No. 24 team right now? William Byron: “Yeah, I’d say on the ovals, I thought we were starting to gain on it and get in the right direction. And then the road courses, I thought we were just OK. I made a mistake in San Diego. I wish I could have that back because I thought I was going to finish probably in the top-eight. Last week, I just kind of felt really good about it going in the race and then just a little bit worse throughout the race. But I think based on the ovals, like where we were at Michigan and Pocono, I was starting to feel pretty good about things. But yeah, I think we’ve just kind of been really up and down, and we’re just trying to find the balance and just be able to have some sort of rhythm. You know, in the past, we just had a lot of notes and we could just kind of lean on that. And this year, it has just been kind of relearning everything. It’s been a lot of hits and misses, so hopefully we can just have a good weekend here and kind of get back on track.” For the In-Season Challenge, do you feel like it’s any kind of disadvantage knowing that Kyle tested here? William Byron: “I mean, I feel like the kid in high school that’s using all his homework because we just kind of used all his notes (laughs). We just kind of used that all week to prepare. But I mean, I don’t know. I think you just get out there, hopefully get a lot of practice and just try to feel it out.” EchoPark Speedway is going to be the first racetrack we go back to that you guys will return to with the new Chevrolet. How much do you think it will change with the amount of data you’ve been able to collect up to now?Kyle Larson: “I don’t know. I feel like at the superspeedway’s, our cars this year compared to the past, just naturally with whatever the body is and setup-wise, they’ve been more comfortable. I just don’t know what progression they’ve made and what stuff the crew chiefs and engineers have learned. We just kind of get in, drive it and try not to hit anything too hard (laughs).” William Byron: “I agree. I think at Atlanta, I was actually really optimistic when we went there in February because we had a lot of speed and a lot of maneuverability, and that didn’t necessarily apply right away. I think we should be good there. It’s going to be hotter and there will be more off-throttle time. I think it’s a great race, especially in the summer. It’s going to be fun.” |