NASCAR CUP SERIES
PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 – 1st in Playoff Standings
2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion
Victories: 4
Top-Fives: 10
Top-10s: 13
Laps Led: 1,088
Average Finish: 13.6
Stage Wins: 10
Of Note:
- The 2024 season marks Larson’s eighth appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
- Larson has made it to the Championship 4 twice, including his championship-earning season (2021) and, most recently, in 2023.
- During the playoff era (2004-present); Larson leads the series in multiple playoff race wins in a single season with five in 2021 (Bristol, Charlotte ROVAL, Texas, Kansas, Phoenix).
- Nine of his 27 career NASCAR Cup Series victories have come in the playoffs.
- Larson has at least one victory at eight of the 10 tracks on the playoff schedule: Las Vegas Motor Speedway (three wins), Watkins Glen (two), Kansas Speedway (two), Bristol Motor Speedway (one), Charlotte ROVAL (one), Homestead-Miami Speedway (one), Martinsville Speedway (one), Phoenix Raceway (one).
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1 – 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day Highlights: What is more important – a Daytona 500 or a NASCAR championship?
“I don’t know.. that’s tough to say, right? I would like both.. I would like a Daytona 500 win and another championship. So I don’t really know how to answer that. I think for me, the next opportunity I have to add one of those to my resume would be a championship. So right now, I would say a championship. But I for sure want a Daytona 500. I think that’s the last crown jewel that’s left for me to win for my resume in NASCAR, so I would love to get that.”
Let’s say you make the Championship 4.. who are the three drivers you absolutely want to have with you in Phoenix?
“Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and William Byron.”
Do you feel like NASCAR needs to change anything with the playoff points system as it is right now for future years?
“I mean, I don’t know. We could easily answer that question, but I just don’t know that they would ever change it like to what we would feel would be more fair, as far as what decides the champion. Like I don’t think that any of us think that you should just go to one track and decide the champion. I think it should be spread across probably three different styles and disciplines of race tracks. But in November, or late October, that’s tough to do. So it would drastically have to change the schedule, I think, to guarantee that we aren’t going to run into any weather or that sort of stuff.”
NASCAR has done that though.. they’ve made strides over the last 10 years..
“Oh for sure, I mean the schedule is a lot nicer and way more compelling. And the format, too, is really compelling, as well. It’s just probably not the fairest, you know when it comes down to the final race.”
How do you feel about this first round?
“Yeah, I don’t love seeing Atlanta (Motor Speedway) in the playoffs at all. And even Watkins Glen (International) for that matter, just because – yes, I like those tracks, but they’re just sketchy places. But if they’re going to be in the playoffs, I would rather them be in the first round than the second or third round. So yeah, I mean I think having the bonus points and playoff points that we’ve earned throughout the regular season is nice. But it still doesn’t guarantee anything. You still have to not run into any trouble, especially in back-to-back weeks, and hopefully you can just make it through.”
Winning a championship in this format, how did that in any way impact how you entered the next time you were in the playoffs in 2022? How does going through that and coming out on top impact your view on the next time you have that opportunity?
“I don’t really remember. I don’t really think it impacted my thought process on the playoffs much at all. I think I’ve always had a good approach to the playoffs; just taking it week-by-week and trying not to put yourself in too big of a hole. But in 2022, I crashed at the ROVAL towards the tail end of the race and missed out in advancing to the next round in the driver’s points. But we made it in the owner’s points, and then went on to the Championship Four that year with the owners. So yeah, I don’t really think it’s changed much, even after winning the championship.”
Do you go into this thinking that it’s going to be a certain couple of guys that you’re going to have to beat, or do you really kind of just focus on yourself?
“Yeah, I mean you definitely have your favorites and guys that are really fast every week. But it’s NASCAR and Next Gen racing, so it’s always crazy. There’s always a couple of heavy guys that get knocked out somewhat early that could very well be deserving champions. So yeah, it’s hard to predict who’s going to be in the Championship Four. But yeah, there’s definitely some good teams that have the best shot currently. But like I said, a lot of stuff can happen. There’s always usually a team or two that turns things up a lot in the playoffs; executes really well and makes it pretty far. Maybe not to the Championship Four every year, but can make it really far.”
You mentioned Watkins Glen could be sketchy, but Hendrick Motorsports has dominated there. Why do you not have more confidence going in there, as good as you run?
“Because it’s a road course.. (laughs). You could totally blow a corner and fall back into the 20’s or worse and never recover from it. But yeah, we have been good there. From what I’ve heard, going back, I think our tires are going to be way softer, so the falloff is supposed to be a lot more. So I don’t think you can totally rely on results from the past either. So I don’t know.. we might not be as dominate as we’ve been there either. Yeah, it’s just a little bit of unknowns going into Watkins Glen.”
I think the No. 1 seed has gone on to win the championship four times. But if you’re saying you keep an open mind in what can happen over these 10 weeks, you don’t care about odds then?
“No.. (laughs). No, I don’t care about odds, really. Yeah, I don’t. I think, like I said – NASCAR, especially in the Next Gen era, is just crazy. There’s so much inconsistency these days that you can easily find yourself in trouble. It doesn’t matter if you have a 35 or 40 point buffer to the cutline currently.”
Back at Pocono, you said that Tyler (Reddick) is a guy that, when you look at the points, you said he was the one that surprised you and said he could be the one that could steal this thing. And then there he was, one point over you on Sunday. It has to kind of make you chuckle a little bit..
“Yeah, I mean it doesn’t make me chuckle at all (laughs). But yeah, no – they were like quietly really good. And then once he strung together like three or whatever seconds, it seemed like, in a row, you’re like – OK, it’s not that quiet anymore.
And then yeah, he’s just done a really good job, as well as that team. It’s been amazing to see a team that fresh and new be at the top of the sport. They’ve done a great job.
So yeah, I wasn’t surprised, by any means. Like I said, he was just quietly doing really good there for a minute. And then yeah, I was like – oh wow, he’s right there. And then we all still continued to be inconsistent after that; Denny (Hamlin), myself and even Chase (Elliott) had a couple rough races.”
Looking back at 2021, when you won half of the playoff races, is that still possible with this car in the current state of tracks?
“I hadn’t really thought about that, but yeah, it’s been done before twice. So yeah, it could totally be done again. But yeah, it’s really tough. You’ve seen guys win back-to-back races; three out of five or something like that. So yeah, it could for sure be done, it’s just tougher it seems like these days.”
Is there a particular strength for this team in the playoffs or are you confident that you guys can be good and get the job done anywhere you need to go over the next 10 weeks?
“Yeah, I think our strengths are our speed. We’re really fast, I feel like, at every race track; road courses, superspeedways, all that. Our execution is – I know it might not seem like it at times, but I think our execution is great. And I think we’ve also overcome a lot of adversity at times, so I think we’re well-rounded as a team. We’ve gone to the final four the last three years, so I think that gives us a lot of confidence, as well.”
Daytona seems like it was one of your best superspeedway races in a long time. Having that speed and execution, does that give you any more confidence heading into Atlanta and Talladega?
“Honestly, I feel like I do have a lot of confidence every time I go to a superspeedway these days because, although it might be easy to forget and Daytona is the most recent race, it’s easy to remember how strong we were. We were that strong at every superspeedway race. We are up front at the ends of the races almost every time and just get caught up in something. Yeah, it has to work out eventually.
I think Denny (Hamlin) said on his podcast or something this week; the law of averages have to change eventually. So that’s kind of how I feel. I feel like we do an amazing job of executing a great superspeedway race, from start to finish.
And yeah, I would agree that Daytona was probably our best one, to date. But like I said, we’ve been up front at almost all of the superspeedway races since I’ve been at Hendrick Motorsports.”
Now that you’re here in the playoffs, where do you put your odds at making the Championship Four? What are the trouble spots along the way to get to that goal?
“I don’t know what our odds would be, but I feel strongly that we can have a great playoffs. I would hope that we’d make the Championship Four. It just gets tougher and tougher each round. But there’s good tracks for us in the first round, too. There’s obviously tracks in each round that are a little bit more worrisome than others, but I think we’re strong at every track. As long as we can execute at a high level, I think we’ll be OK.”
Have you made a decision on Indy yet?
“Have I made a decision?”
Or is it Rick’s (Hendrick) decision?
“I would love to. We’re still working on it.. it’s progressing. So I like that, but obviously things can always change. But yeah, I would love to because I didn’t get to do ‘the double’ this year. So that’s really why I wanted to do it. I obviously wanted to compete in the Indianapolis 500, but more than anything, I wanted to do ‘the double’ and have a chance at winning one of the two, or both, and I felt like I just didn’t get that opportunity.”
Is there more pressure to win the championship with it being Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary?
“I don’t view it as pressure. I just view it as opportunity. Right now, we have 10 more opportunities to win a race, and then also a championship, which would be great in Rick’s (Hendrick) 40th season. Yeah, just have to try and execute, and hopefully we’ll give ourselves an opportunity to do that.”
With the way your regular season as gone, if you don’t make the Championship Four, do you view your season as a bad season for you?
“I don’t know.. I try not to think about missing the Championship Four. Right now, our plan is to do a good job, and then give ourselves an opportunity at Phoenix. If we happen to miss the Championship Four, then I can try and judge if it’s a bad season or not. But we’ve already got four wins at this point, so I wouldn’t call that a bad season.”
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