NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MARCH 15, 2025
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ practice and qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
A lot of discussion this week on the approval process to be in a Cup race after last weekend. I’m curious, like for High Limit, do you get involved in like – should this person be allowed to race or should they not? Do you feel like there needs to be a little more structure for Cup?
“Yeah, at least on the sprint car side of it, I don’t know if there’s anything in place. There could be at times, but I feel like most of the time — sprint cars are crazy (laughs). So if you’re not capable of it, you usually don’t get in it.
I think in NASCAR, I don’t know what the approval process is, so I can’t really speak on what needs to change. But it is surprising sometimes when some drivers are not allowed to run and then others are. So yeah, I don’t know.. maybe there just needs to be a better something in place. I know when you’re a rookie, you have to go run an ARCA race or you’ve got to build up to the size of the track and stuff like that. So you have to run like three or four races before you can run an Xfinity car or something on an intermediate or superspeedway. So yeah, maybe there needs to be more of that.”
Curious about Travis Pastrana.. how did that all came about and what were your early thoughts?
“Yeah, that was pretty neat to have him get to check something off of his bucket list, especially a guy that’s done so much in action sports, motorsports and all that. So yeah, I’m not exactly sure how it all started. I think there was a connection between the Ridge & Sons Racing Team and Travis. I think they have a mutual sponsor maybe or something. So yeah, I’d heard about that, and then JP and I were able to just call Travis and kind of organize the logistics of it and get the ball rolling a little bit faster. Yeah, so that was neat to have him come out and have some fun in his sprint car. Yeah, he looked smooth. I mean, the track was obviously in not great shape, just with it being during the day and all that. But he was smooth, built up to speed and had a good time. So that’s great.”
You’ve won two of the last three races here. What’s the key to getting around this place?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I think as far as getting around the track and being fast, your car’s got to obviously be fast, have a lot of grip, but get through the bumps, I feel like, really well in (turns) one and two to just kind of carry momentum around the whole track. Three and four are really slick corners, as well. And then to win, you got to have all of that, but your team has to execute. I feel like when we have won the races here, our team’s done a really good job, on pit road especially. So more of all that and hopefully we’ll have a good shot.”
Kyle, for most teams, like two third place finishes in the first month of the season is a pretty good start. But you mentioned last week like it hasn’t been a good start. So what is your perspective on where the No. 5 team sits a month in?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I think like Daytona just was rough. Like we just were buried in the back the whole time. So that was frustrating to start your season off like that. I would have rather been up front and got crashed, but never got to see the front. And then, yeah, Atlanta was good. You know, I was happy. I was like — oh, great. You know, I expected to go there and crash, and we got a good finish. So I felt like we were a week ahead of schedule. And then, you know, we went to COTA and had good speed and all that. I just didn’t do a great job behind the wheel. And then we had the right front wheel fall off and that buried us. And then finally had a chance to overcome it and then got spun. And then Phoenix last week, we just weren’t fast. Like we weren’t very good. But our team did an amazing job executing — pit stops, restarts, all of that stuff kept us in the hunt.
And yeah, I don’t know.. I just feel like we haven’t had consistency really to start, whether that be kind of everything coming together. So I’m hoping that this week, a track that we have success at in the past, you know, we can kind of put it all together and you have a solid weekend. And then go to another track next week where I’m really confident at and try and just put a few good races in a row together.”
With the High Limit, you just happened to have the track in the backyard. I understand Texas is similar. Do you have like a blueprint going forward where you might be able to have, you know, tracks that are somewhere close to where you’re racing in NASCAR and kind of have some cross-promotion or be able to appear at more races? Is that part of your blueprint?
“I don’t know. I mean, I think when it works, like it works. You know, here getting our season started across the street. And then, when we go to Texas, as well. I believe when we’re at Kansas Speedway, we get to race at Lakeside one of the nights.. maybe Thursday or Friday night.
But then, I mean, it’s hard. There’s already races in place, you know, events in place throughout the year. So, like, logistically it doesn’t make sense. And you don’t want to piggyback off NASCAR, you know, all the time. So, there’s great sprint car fans throughout the country. So, no.. we don’t have to rely on coming to venues like this. But it is nice, you know, when you can get the cross-promotion and all that. But it’s not something that we look at trying to do a ton of.”
Kyle, when one of your competitors has won three-straight races, how much do you look at that with respect, as well as — okay, we need to stop this guy?
“I don’t know. I mean, I think we had a great season in 2021 and was able to win three points-paying races in a row, twice, that year. And four in a row once, you know, with the All-Star race in there.
So, I think having lived through it on my own, I can respect it a lot more and it doesn’t bother me. You know, when I see somebody else having success like that. So, if he wins this weekend, maybe it’s like — all right, this is getting annoying. But I think for me, as like a competitor and a fan, I think it’s really neat because this sport is so tough, especially in the Next Gen era. So, I respect it more than anything currently. But if it keeps going on too long, it’ll get annoying.”
If the third-place finish at Phoenix was a struggle, do you have any concerns about Martinsville, where you’ve been great in the Next Gen era with a win and five top-six finishes in the last five races?
“I don’t know. I would say as a team and organization, we’re much better at Martinsville than we are at Phoenix. So, yeah, we had hopes of being better than we were at Phoenix across the board, you know, the four of us. William (Byron) was pretty decent, but the rest of us were pretty average. Where I feel like when we go to Martinsville, we have a package that we can probably look back on and build our car off of that and be competitive. So, I don’t have as much concern going to Martinsville as I do Phoenix right now. But Martinsville is Martinsville, and it is a tough track still for me, even though it’s crazy to think that it’s probably our statistically best track on this circuit.
So, we’ll see. But, yeah, Martinsville is still not a place where I’m like — I can go there and lead every lap. You know, I feel like I can come to Vegas or Homestead and I can lead every lap. But Martinsville is a tough place. Even if I had the best car in the field, which I probably do have the best car in the field, and I’m bringing it down to sixth.”
You did just bring up Homestead. Your last win there came I think two, three races ago. You had a consistent string of top-fives for a while. How do you feel going in next week for Homestead?
“Yeah, I mean, I feel good. I always feel good going to Homestead. It’s probably the track that suits me the best, you know, being comfortable running against the wall and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, the last two finishes we’ve had there don’t reflect how we’ve ran. You know, we’ve been the best every time we go there. We were stupid fast there the second- half of the fall race last time we were there with a bunch of damage underneath the car that you can’t see. So that was a satisfying run to almost have a shot to win there. But, yeah, hopefully this year it goes smooth; we have a good handling race car, which I know we will, and we can just hammer away at the wall and be fast.”
So if Christopher Bell wins here this weekend, you can break the streak next weekend?
“I’m hoping to break the streak this week.”
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