NASCAR CUP SERIES
IOWA SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
AUGUST 2, 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 Iowa Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
I’m wondering from your perspective as you were the polesitter here last year, you have to go all the way back to 2019 when the last time a polesitter in particular had won a short-track race. Why is it so hard to, or for you guys in the Next Gen car especially, to get the pole and go on to win the race in general? Does it have to do with the traffic or is there any reason in particular why it’s been difficult?
“Yeah, I mean, that’s a surprising stat, so I’m not sure I have a great answer, other than the field’s just tighter now so there’s more teams that have an opportunity to win if things go right. And then Next Gen races are a little bit more chaotic and stuff. But I would have thought that a polesitter had won in that amount of time.
But since 2019? Damn, because that’s even an old car. So, I don’t know. That’s wild.”
You look at this year with Hendrick Motorsports… you guys are one through three. You’re in the mix for the regular season championship. Is there anything different for this year in terms of the competitiveness of having that opportunity to race against your teammates for a regular season championship? How would you recap this year to this point?
“Yeah, it’s been great to see Hendrick Motorsports is atop the standings right now with just a few races left until the end of the regular season. So, yeah, that’s something to be proud of. But there’s still a lot of racing left and the playoffs can get crazy.
But yeah, I feel like our team was really, really strong to start the year. We kind of had those, you know, five or six weeks where we had fallen off a little bit, but these last two have gone well. We were competitive here at Iowa last year. I’m sure track will probably feel different, I’m assuming, with the age. The pavements obviously changed color quite a bit, so I’d imagine grip would be a little bit different. But yeah, we’ll see. Excited to get out there and practice, and hopefully qualifying goes well and we can be fast again.”
Corey Day last weekend had, I’d say, his breakout race at IRP with finishing second. Quick enough to possibly battle for the lead if there was a couple more laps in that race. Have you gotten to talk to him this week as he’s wrapping up qualifying here in Xfinity and what did you say to him?
“No, I mean, he was just part of the competition meeting on Monday and he just talked through his race some. It was good to see him have a strong run there. It was a track that I thought may, you know, suit his style, being able to move around and search for grip and things. He was probably one of the first, if not the first, running below the apron that night and found some speed that way. So, you know, it just lends itself to a dirt guy’s background probably.
But yeah, he’s been slowly getting better here lately in the stock car stuff and I’m sure gaining confidence. So yeah, I’m hopeful and excited to see how he keeps going in the 17 car.
We’re always cheering him on. It’s tough to learn these days with limited practice and no testing. You’re really reliant on the sim. It’s much tougher for the young guys to learn these days, so it’s been good to see him kind of figuring it out here lately.”
With the placement of Iowa this weekend, a week before nationals, does this weekend really gear you up heading into another Knoxville Nationals where you could potentially win another one?
“I mean, logistically, it’s just nice being here, getting to run 360 Nationals this weekend, I’m staying in Knoxville for about two weeks.
So yeah, the next week the logistics get a little hectic as we get to the weekend, but that’s all normal. It’s always a fun time of year for me. I love the Knoxville Nationals. It’s even better having us here this weekend to allow the mechanics and other drivers to cruise over there and take in some good racing this weekend.”
You were fast here last year. Do you feel like any of the same stuff will work this year, or because of change of tire and track aging a year, that not a whole lot is relevant?
“Yeah, I mean, I’m going into it at least with the mindset of myself that it’s going to be at least not the same. But you know, you just never know until you get out there. So yeah, like I mentioned we were fast last year, but I think it was the first time here with the repave. That presents challenges to everybody, so the field was pretty, I felt like, not as tight as a normal Next Gen race. It allowed for some good racing and passing was easier. I would imagine this year, everybody’s narrowed in on their setups way better, so I imagine it will be really hard to pass. Execution is going to mean even more than it did last year. But yeah, obviously your car’s got to be handling good too.
But we’ll see. I think we’re a little bit different setup this year, and hopefully it’s better.”
Have you looked back last week to see if you could have done anything different on Bubba Wallace? Restart after restart, he was holding you off and we’re not used to seeing that from you…
“It’s Indy… tell me when anybody wants to restart from the outside (laughs).”
Any thoughts on Stewart Friesen’s big block modified wreck? And if you have an opinion, what does a NASCAR garage think about him and like about him?
“Well yeah, it’s obviously devastating to see the crash and then see the results of the crash with the injuries and whatnot. Yeah, a very serious accident… kind of a crazy one that you don’t really see happen too often in big blocks. Our thoughts and prayers definitely go out to Stewart and hoping for a speedy recovery and something that hopefully wouldn’t alter his abilities in the race car when he does get healed back up.
But yeah, I mean, he’s a gritty racer and one I respect a lot. You know, he runs Truck Series races on Friday and then flies to race his big block the rest of the weekend. That just shows the passion that he has for racing. Like I mentioned, just hopefully he can have a speedy, healthy recovery.”
You were super-fast here last year and you got into that incident with Daniel Suarez, I believe. When you’re that fast on the track, especially one that’s this new to the schedule, and you have that missed opportunity where something goes haywire and you come back to it, does it put a little chip on your shoulder or give you a little extra confidence coming into this weekend about what Sunday could bring?
“No, no, it doesn’t, just because, like I said, I think your team’s just — some teams missed the setup last year. And I’m speaking of mostly like Gibbs, you know, a top-tier organization. So I would imagine there’s going to be six more competitive cars this year. The RFK cars are way better. They struggled here last year. Spire Motorsports has gotten so much better. So no, I don’t think you’re going to have somebody be as standout as what us and maybe the 12 were last year in this race. But hopefully we’ve hit on it again and we’re really, really fast. But I would imagine the field would be way tighter.”
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