NASCAR CUP SERIES
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
JULY 12, 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 Sonoma Raceway.
The 32-year-old Elk Grove, California, native returns to his home track as a two-time winner in NASCAR’s top division, including the series’ most recent appearance at the circuit one year ago.
Media Availability Quotes:
How’s it like to be back here where it all began for you?
“Yeah… or near where it kind of began because I didn’t grow up doing this stuff. But, no, it’s good to be back home, or close to it, and good to be in the Napa Valley; hanging out with friends and doing all the fun stuff that Napa has to offer. And yeah, come back to a track that I enjoy and have ran decently at in the past. Hopefully we can have another solid weekend.”
Your qualifying average here is 3.8, which is absolutely ridiculous. How are you such a good qualifier here?
“I really don’t know…. I’m not sure. But yeah, it’s always gone well for me here — from the first times I’ve been here to qualify, and then we went on a string of, I don’t know, four or five poles in a row. Last year, I think we qualified fifth. So, I don’t know. We had one where we were pretty bad, I think, in the Next Gen car and qualified in the teens. But other than that, it’s been really good.”
Your crew chief, Cliff Daniels, is known for his motivational pep talks, sometimes, you know, before races and during races. As a driver, how do they resonate with you? Are there times where they really kind of, like, pump you up, or are there other times when you’re, like, you just kind of shrug them off? What’s your reaction to those in general?
“I think he’s really good at articulating words and thoughts and all that. He seems to always know kind of the right thing to say at the right time.
So, yeah, I would say, if anything, not that it gets me pumped up or anything, but it just kind of gets me refocused or more focused on what’s ahead. I would say the same goes for probably everybody on our team, you know, that works with Cliff.”
Kyle, this battle for the regular season championship has really tightened up over the last couple of weeks. There are now five guys within 48 points. How do you perceive that battle, especially with a couple of road courses like here and Watkins Glen still to come where there are points on the table if you don’t want to flip the stages? What’s your perception on how that battle has shaped up now with seven or eight races left?
“Yeah, it’s really tight. Hopefully we can kind of get back on a run of being consistent and getting stage points. I feel like, you know, we’ve still kind of been consistent. We just haven’t finished as high as we have early in the year, and then we’ve been missing out on stage points. So, you know, we’ve kind of lost track a little bit there, and others have been doing a good job. Chase (Elliott) is always consistent, so he’s just quietly kind of there. You know, after his win that he had, I was shocked. I didn’t even know he was that close in points. And then, yeah, William’s (Byron) been really strong, but he’s had some bad luck here in a couple races lately. So it’s just kind of, when the leader of the points can’t really get away, it just kind of brings it all together.
There’s still a lot of racing left, though. If you go on a good run, you can stretch out here pretty quickly.”
Is there anything you can point your finger toward as far as like why you guys as a team have maybe, I don’t know — you guys have set such exceptionally high standards for yourselves over these past couple of years. Is there anything you can point to in this recent stretch that you feel like you haven’t been executing collectively at that same level?
“I don’t know. Honestly, I feel like we’ve been — for what we have on the racetrack, I feel like we’ve executed really well. You know, just on paper, it looks like we’re just very average, which we have been. But, you know, we’ve taken days where we’ve been not a top-ten car and finished in the top-10 or even top-five.
And, you know, those days, although they’re not fun, they are rewarding at the end of it because I think , a lot of times in my past, I’ll try even too hard and make big mistakes and crash, which I’ve done that here lately some also. But, yeah, I don’t know. We just haven’t been as strong as we’ve wanted to be here lately. We’ve gone to some tracks where when you look at results from the past, we haven’t been quite competitive or have race winning speed and it’s kind of carried over to this year at some of those places too.
I’m confident when we come here to Sonoma. It’s a good track for us. But, you know, it’s a different tire than we had here last year, so I’m sure that will present some differences and challenges. But yeah, just got to try to have some car speed and then execute along with it.”
Cliff (Daniels) decided to pit you kind of late last year. You had fresher tires than the guys that you were attempting to pass there at the end. How did that help you attack in the closing laps?
“Well yeah, I mean any time you’re on a tire advantage like that, it helps. But, you know, at any point it can kind of go sideways if a caution comes out, so then you’re restarting mid-pack again. So, yeah, the race just kind of played out in our favor last year with the strategy that we committed to. And, yeah, you know, it just worked out. We had a great car, too, so we could have been on other strategies and probably would have been okay also.
But the strategy that we were on, without having the cautions at the end, it really helped me be on offense and make the moves I needed to. And really when I had that much of an advantage, people weren’t really fighting me off. You know, I’d catch them and they’d just let me go, so it didn’t really limit me on lap time as I was coming through.”
Since you grew up in Northern California, and I think you came out Tuesday or something, what do you do up here to have fun, relax, just kind of get away from the grind?
“Yeah, you know, it’s definitely been a grind for me lately, so it was good to get out here and not have any extra races and whatnot. So, yeah, we came out on Tuesday; met up with Abreu’s, had dinner at Mustard’s Grill, and then Wednesday laid by the pool. Rico, David and their family, they had like a fundraising thing that they had sold earlier in the year or last year. So we got to run go-karts at their track and they had dinner on their property with a lot of people, so that was a lot of fun. On Thursday, we did some wine tasting, and yesterday we didn’t do anything. I brought my bike out here, so I rode my bike, so that was nice and relaxing, too.”
Did this week kind of help your mindset a little bit preparing for this weekend and kind of how you plan to break some of the issues you’ve had in the past and help you reset maybe in a way to kind of prepare for this weekend? How did that kind of affect your overall mindset?
“I mean, we’ll see. A lot of times, I don’t think it matters, you know, for results on the track. But for me, I think Sonoma kind of always falls at a good time of year to enjoy some nice weather and things off the track to kind of just be a normal person again and take your mind off competition because it’s so easy to just immerse yourself in it every day. Some people thrive on that, and I would say I typically am that guy, too. But a lot of times, it’s good to get away from racing. I think that can really recharge you. So, yeah, I feel ready to go. I’m happy to be here and happy to be back on the track that we ran so well at last year.”
What can you tell me just about the track — what you like about it, where you found success, and really what you think probably separates you from the other drivers and the reason why you’ve had so much success?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I definitely enjoy it. It’s a flowy track, and although you can call it a lot of corners, there’s really not. I feel like the less corners on a road course, the better off I am. But yeah, I think the repave really helped me. I don’t think I excel at tracks on road courses that wear out tires because I just sling the car around a lot, so I feel like I’m hard on the tires. So the repave I thought last year really helped me, and we’ll see if it does again this year. But yeah, it’s just a good track.”
As you bring your dirt racing and you’re bringing other guys into NASCAR, such as Corey Day and guys like that, how do you think your influence is effecting both sports? And also, I see we also understood Roto Rooters is also sponsoring your dirt racing. How does that affect you as, obviously, you being a champion in NASCAR, and, you know, you’ve been through all these things. How does that work with you?
“I don’t know. I mean, I’ve always kind of done it, so I don’t really think or feel like I’m doing anything different. Since joining Hendrick Motorsports, I’ve had a lot of success, and then now there’s more eyes, I feel like, on me in both NASCAR as well as dirt racing. And then, yeah, guys like Corey Day — he’s young and up and coming, and it was great. It wasn’t just me that got him into Hendrick Motorsports, his family had a relationship with Jeff Andrews and Jeff Gordon and all that. So, yeah, it’s neat to see him here and learning. Trying to get better and learn a completely different discipline, especially with the road course stuff. It’s always neat when you can see other dirt racers try and find their way up the ladder.”
You’re a world-class driver. When you see a guy like SVG come along, are you kind of amazed at his technique and his race craft?
“Yeah, absolutely, for sure. You know, he’s so good, and it’s rare that you see somebody stand out and distance himself from the competition as much as he is. You know, he’s way, way, way better than us at the road course stuff.
And he’s got his own technique, you can call it. Not his own because the rest of the world does it – you know, right-foot braking, clutching and all that stuff. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks… like there’s zero chance I can learn how to do that. And even if I did, like there’s zero chance that I can have it be better than what I’m probably doing with left-foot braking. So yeah, he’s just so good. He’s still new to the oval stuff, so he’s going to continue to get better at that. And, yeah, I mean, if he can figure out the ovals, he’s going to be dominant.”
Do you think here at Sonoma, the rest of the Cup Garage has a little bit more forshame because this is a track that we’ve been coming to for a really long time, and this will be the first time that he’s (Shane van Gisbergen) racing in a Cup car here?
“I’d hope that we’re a little closer, but he’s still going to be the fastest, I think. You know, you look at Xfinity – he dominated the weekend here last year, and he’s going to dominate it again today, you know, being on the pole and all that. I don’t know why he would be any different in the Cup car. I would say the competition’s a little closer to him as we come to more normal road courses, like COTA and hopefully Sonoma. Watkins Glen, he was still the fastest there last year, but it’s a race. But yeah, in Mexico, he was super good. And then, yeah, Chicago, I think he’s just really, really, really familiar with the size of his car and what it takes to push the limits and not be over the limit. So, yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see. I hope that we’re much closer to him this week, but as good as he is, I expect him to be fastest in qualifying and execute in a good race again.”
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