MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
GANDER RV 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 3, 2019
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Highlights:
ON THE ROLLOVER ACCIDENT LAST WEEKEND AT THE END OF THE TALLADEGA RACE
“I’m just thankful that the chassis and all my safety equipment held up good.”
NASCAR SAYS THE THEORY IS THAT YOUR CAR WAS DAMAGED AND CHANGED THE AERO OF IT BECAUSE IT WASN’T LAUNCH AND IT WASN’T A HIT THAT SENT IT. IT WAS DAMAGE THAT THEN CHANGED THE AERO AND THEY ARE TRYING TO REPLICATE THAT. COULD YOU SEE ANY OF THAT IN THE VIDEO?
“Well, I would have had damage on the left side. So, maybe it affected the aero some. I don’t really know. I’m not an engineer by any means. It looked like the right rear started to come up and that’s when the air got underneath the car and had it launch. So, like I said, I was not expecting it to do that at all.”
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT IT AND YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE THAT NASCAR STUDIES THESE THINGS, APPARENTLY THE HIT BY THE NO. 24 (WILLIAM BYRON) SET THE BLACK BOX OFF. SO THEY HAVE THAT. AND THEY ALSO HAVE THE PHOTOS. WILL THEY KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOU ON THIS?
“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence in NASCAR. I’ve been involved in some big crashes. It seems like with any crash I’ve been in or that other drivers have been in, they’ve made improvements from them and made the cars safer and all that. So yeah, they have a lot of smart people in the safety area of their business. I’m confident that they’ll look at it and make improvements from it.”
YOU LOOKED AT IT FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY?
“The in-car video, yeah.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK? WAS IT SCARY TO YOU?
“It makes me feel like I’m really tough (laughter). Yeah, it’s pretty crazy how much everything stretches. My seat belts, my harness, everything stretch with an impact like that. So, I stretched far enough that my head hit the steering wheel a little bit. And with each tumble, just the jolts that my body went through was pretty crazy to see. And then you slow it down and look at how the chassis is flexing when it makes contact with the pavement, it’s pretty incredible. We’re driving heavy vehicles. So, for it to hold up as well as it did was pretty amazing.”
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT PRACTICE TODAY?
“I feel good. We came here and tested a few weeks ago. In the past I’ve struggled in Turn 3 with it (the car) bouncing really bad. I feel like we made it a little bit better in the test. And then coming back here today, it was a lot better in Turn 3. My car had a lot of grip. Everybody was pretty fast. My car felt really good and it was a lot of fun. That was probably the most fun practice I’ve had in a while.”
YOU MENTIONED ON MRN THAT THIS PLACE REMINDS YOU OF LAWRENCEBURG SPEEDWAY. WHAT IS THE REASON BEHIND THAT?
“I said Lawrenceburg when it’s hooked-up. Just like qualifying in a winged car at Lawrenceburg, you’re hauling ass (laughter). And here today, in practice, it’s cooler and you’re hauling ass. It’s just got a ton of grip and you just have to have a lot of confidence and commitment to carry a lot of throttle, and be smooth, too, at the same time. So, just how crazy it is and the banking and the shape of the track kind of felt similar.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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