KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET PLAID CHEVROLET SS, joined Team Chevy and a group of breast cancer survivors at Martinsville Speedway today to ‘Paint the Curb Pink’. Following are some comments on the event and a few quotes on his thoughts on returning to Martinsville Speedway in a few weeks for the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE PAINTING THE CURBS PINK AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY WITH TEAM CHEVY?
“It means a lot to get the invite to come here and help raise awareness for breast cancer by painting the curbs here at Martinsville. The curbs are really popular I guess here, everybody knows the curbs it’s a lot different than any other racetrack. No other racetrack has curbs like Martinsville, so to pain them pink and make them standout even more helps, I definitely think, raise awareness for breast cancer. So many families are touched by that in a way. To come here and play a small part in trying to help raise awareness to help those families beat it is pretty cool.”
YOU PUT A LOT OF HARD WORK INTO PAINTING THE CURBS PINK ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR PART TO KEEP THEM PINK DURING RACE WEEKEND?
“I think everybody clips a curb at some point in the race. I’m sure I will be down there. I’m sure I will hit it a couple of times. But I will try my best to stay away from it. The curbs are really aggressive in our NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars. The best thing for us to do is stay away from them.”
YOU GET TO DO A LOT OF REALLY COOL THINGS AS A RACECAR DRIVER WHERE DOES THIS RANK AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE A PART OF A PROGRAM LIKE THIS?
“Yeah, this is up there. This is cool because I’ve never really, I don’t think I’ve done much to… other than just compete in like other events and stuff that go to cancer research and stuff. Where this is a little bit different where I’m participating in something bigger than just doing what I do every weekend. It’s cool and to meet all these ladies that have survived breast cancer is great to see them smiling and having a good time. I got to drive them around for a few laps in the pink Chevy SS pace car so it was a fun event.”
MARTINSVILLE IS THE ONLY SHORT TRACK REMAINING ON THE SCHEDULE. WHAT IS YOUR MENTALITY COMING INTO A RACE LIKE MARTINSVILLE?
“Martinsville has definitely always been a track that I struggle at the most throughout our whole Cup schedule. I work really hard on trying to get better and better each time I’m here, staying positive when I’m here because it’s easy to get down on myself. Because I know our car is good here it’s just for whatever reason I kind of struggle here. Last time we were here we qualified good, ran really well in practice and then I fainted and didn’t get to run the race. This year coming back I hope we still have that speed and hopefully I can race.”
HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN A LEVEL HEAD AROUND A TRACK WHERE YOU ARE PUTTING 43 CARS ON A ½ MILE TRACK? HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN THAT FOCUS AND NOT GET FRUSTRATED?
“It’s tough. 500 laps here is a long time. Restarts can get frustrating when you are stuck on the outside row. You might have a good car, but if you are stuck on the outside it feels like everybody passes you. There is a lot of stuff that is frustrating about this place. Rubber gets laid down, the groove starts to get really slick and you want to move around, but you know you have to stay locked kind of down to the curb on the bottom. It’s just tough. Your brakes will start fading at the end of the race, your tires get really worn out here and it’s just a really tough racetrack.”
YOU ADMITTED THIS IS NOT YOUR BEST TRACK. YOUR TEAMMATE JAMIE MCMURRAY IS PRETTY GOOD HERE HAVE YOU RELIED ON HIM OR IS THERE ANYBODY ELSE THAT YOU HAVE TALKED TO TO HELP TRY TO FIGURE THIS PLACE OUT?
“Yeah, Jamie is probably the one guy I lean on the most especially when we come here to Martinsville. I think Martinsville is probably his best track or one of them. So, now it’s nice to be able to look at his data off of his driving style and try to learn from it and try to put that into what I’m doing out on the racetrack to try and make me go faster. Like I said I think I have been getting better and better here each time we come, just got to keep working hard and lean on Jamie as much as I can.”
