MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
SOUTH POINT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 16, 2018
KYLE LARSON CARRIES BANNER FOR CAMARO ZL1 AT LAS VEGAS
Driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet Earns Sixth Runner-Up Finish of 2018
- Kyle Larson was Chevrolet’s top-finisher in the South Point 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS), ending the day with the runner-up effort in his No. 42 DC Solar Vegas Strong Camaro ZL1.
- The run marked Larson’s sixth second-place finish of the season, his fourth top 10 finish in six races at LVMS, and his 15th top 10 finish of the 2018 MENCS campaign.
- Larson battled back from an early tire issue in the 400.5-mile race to lead 24 laps and contend for the win in an overtime finish that included multiple re-starts.
- As one of the 16 Playoff contenders in the final 10 races that will determine the 2018 MENCS champion, Larson now ranks 8th in the point standings following the opening round at LVMS.
POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR VEGAS STRONG CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by our second‑place finisher, Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 DC Solar Vegas Strong Chevrolet. We will open it up to questions for Kyle.
Q. Kyle, the restart when you went three-wide to take the lead, what gave you the confidence to think that could work?
KYLE LARSON: I mean, you’re trying to find clean air on the nose of your car, so I mean, I didn’t really expect to get to the lead. I was just trying to get clean air on my nose, and it happened ‑‑ the run timed out perfectly where I could get to his right rear quarter and kind of slow him down a little bit. So honestly, that wasn’t even ‑‑ I guess it’s a thought before the restart, but I didn’t think ‑‑ I was just trying to kind of shove him out to the lead, and then I never really got to his bumper, so the run just kind of worked out where I was able to go around him, and I needed it to stay green there. I felt like I could have won the race right there because he was really good on the short run and I was terrible on short runs today, but once I could get the top going, I was really good, and I was ‑‑ right when I moved up top in 3 and 4 and pulled away, the caution came out. I felt like I was going to be able to stretch it.
I felt like the 78 would probably get by him at some point and then maybe chase me down. I knew if I could hold Brad off for a little bit, I would have a good shot, but it didn’t work out. And then we had a ton of restarts there; a couple of them worked out for me, a couple of them didn’t, and thankfully the last one worked out and we were able to get to second.
Q. Can you kind of describe what it was like for you out there? The race lasted a lot longer than it normally would, a lot of cautions and red flags at the end. What was it like to go through all that with the heat?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I mean, it honestly wasn’t too bad in the car I didn’t think. It’s nice being out here with no humidity. I mean, my hair wasn’t even sweaty when I got out. It wasn’t too bad. The red flag got a little hot, but nowhere near like some of the races in the Midwest that we run, or Chicago was terrible. Yeah, I did glance in the stands, and it stinks that the sun beats on them all race. The stands were pretty packed before the race, and then there that red flag, it looked like they were pretty thin. But it was so hot. I felt like it was hotter in the sun probably than it was for us in the car. Just a hot day, but hot days make for great racing. I thought the track was awesome. For us to be able to run next to the wall and all over the place was a lot of fun.
I wish we could run more races here in the heat.
Q. You said the other day that your outlook would be good if you could eliminate the bad luck. Did you feel like when you had that tire problem the bad luck was occurring again, and is your luck changing that you were able to rebound and do so well today?
KYLE LARSON: We’re only one week in, so I’m sure bad luck will creep up eventually. I mean, that was bad luck, but it was also good luck at the same time that it happened off of the corner down the backstretch and not into Turn 3. The tire didn’t come apart and tear the car up. I knew when we came back out and only lost a lap, it was going to work out pretty quickly, and it worked out, I mean, perfectly. We lost that lap, took the wave‑around, got back to the lead lap, went under caution like four laps later.
So, it sucked that we lost stage points there. I felt like I probably would have got eight or nine points that stage and then who knows about the next stage, maybe eight to ten more, maybe less. I lost out on a lot of points today because of the track position that we lost. So yeah, could have been a lot worse, that tire problem. But we did lose out on a lot of points there.
Q. That being said, though, I think there were nine guys or 11 guys who had trouble today. Knowing that you came in with so few playoff points and now came out with a second-place finish, do you feel more comfortable looking through the first round now?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know, I feel like you only want a few guys to have bad finishes. You don’t want a group of them because then it allows them to have ‑‑ the guys who had problems have a little less stress because they’re all kind of bunched together with not a lot of points.
But I haven’t even seen the points. I don’t know what it looks like. But we had a decent day. I felt like with those stage points that we lost out on, there was probably guys that we ran better than that still gained more points than we did today. So that stinks, but we had a good finish, so that was nice.
Q. Kyle, the tire went out first, but after you replaced the tires, did you feel the grip of the tires really getting loose and wearing out real quick?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know. There for a minute, I thought the track freed up, and then I thought it was getting tighter and tighter throughout the race, the last half or so. I don’t know. It was hot.
Q. Is there any theory or explanation for why this was such a crazy wild card‑ish type race when it’s just a normal mile‑and‑a‑half in theory?
KYLE LARSON: I’ll let Martin answer. My tire ran out of talent. It looked like the 4’s tire ran out of talent, and then I’m not sure what ‑‑ I don’t know who all had issues, what issues they had, but it seemed like a lot of people had issues. Yeah, I don’t know. I guess all the red playoff cars, that’s a bad deal. Hopefully that doesn’t happen to me next week.
Q. For both of you, the big three obviously dominated up until now six races ago. Has the worm turned? Martin, obviously you’re one of the big three. For each of you, do you feel like now the big three is scrambling to get back to being the big three?
KYLE LARSON: I felt like the 18 struggled here the last few weeks. I’m sure they’re trying stuff. Maybe not, I don’t know. Martin was really strong today. I felt like he just needed to stay green and he had the best car. Harvick was a little off of Martin, and then Brad again was really fast, especially on the short runs. And then I felt like I was kind of right there, also. Didn’t really get to show it much there until the end, but the 18 is definitely off their game a little bit right now, but they’ll be able to sprinkle some fairy dust and figure it out.
Q. Kyle, did you have any other tire issues beyond the one that you had today that we saw?
KYLE LARSON: No, I don’t think so. That first set that we had on, they said looked perfect. I was kind of shocked when we ‑‑ we must have cut it. I was running the top, and that same corner that I had the issue, I had entered maybe four to six inches higher than I had any other lap, so maybe I ran something over. I’m not sure. It didn’t sound like I did or anything like that. But once I got to exit and down the backstretch, I realized that my tire was flat, so I was able to get down pit road.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
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