NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
September 18, 2026
With the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying canceled due to weather, the lineup for tomorrow’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway will be set by the rulebook, putting Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team on the pole.
Media Availability Quotes:
After Daytona, before Darlington, you were kind of bit by the metric. Now, you’ve benefited from the metric. Is this one of those kind of ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ kind of situations?
“Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it’s better to be off on this side of it than the other.
But yeah, I don’t know. It’s good. I mean,. it goes off the previous week’s work, so yeah, we didn’t do too hot at Daytona and got bit by it at Darlington.”
How valuable is the track position here from a stage point standpoint, being able to manage the race and try to win this race?
“Yeah, I mean it’s definitely important, for sure, as far as you’re gaining those stage points in the first stage. You still don’t really know how the race is going to play out, but I would rather start up front than not. We’ve started mid-pack or worse here and raced our way up to the lead before, so I mean you can you can do it if you have a good car. But yeah, I’m happy, in a way, that it rained out, but I just hope we can get out and practice now.”
If you don’t get any practice, how does that impact things for tomorrow?
“I mean again, yeah, I would rather practice than not, but I’m also okay if we aren’t able to get out there to practice. I feel like our package here is decent. I feel like I can hopefully get into a rhythm pretty quickly. It’s going to be the same for everybody. We did some sim work and feel like we got our package a little bit more balanced, so we’ll see how it reacts to real life. But it’s Bristol. It’s a fun place and you just really got to go out there and race no matter how your car is.”
Was a week after a win any different than a week after not winning?
“Not really. It was a pretty straightforward week, I guess. I mean Monday, we went to the Chiefs game, but that was planned anyways. But outside of that, for me and I think even our team, it was just kind of a straightforward, business-as-usual, style week. Nothing changed really on my end, and I’m sure Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) as well. Maybe a couple more interviews than normal, but other than that, you just try not to live in the high too long because you can get your focus not in the right direction for this weekend.”
Being nine points out of the points lead now, do you feel any differently about your championship contention now that there’s a tangible gap from what it was when you started the Chase?
“Yeah, I mean definitely, it’d be hard not to look at it and feel like you’ve got a legitimate shot now. I think I was open before we even went to Darlington that I wasn’t like the most confident. But yeah, we’ve started the Chase off way better than I anticipated. I was hopeful of both of those races being good, but not really one where I thought we would go win, especially at Gateway. We had a great race at Darlington and only gained six points on the lead, so I was a bit bummed after that because I felt like we had such a good race and felt like we were scoring more points than we actually did. But then at Gateway, we scored way more points than I ever expected to. When you leave there and you look at it, you know, it definitely gives you better hope. But there’s still eight more races. That’s a long time, and a lot of good could happen or some bad could happen. But we’re just going to show up to the track and try and do the best job that we can do, as we try to do every week, and see what see where it ends up.”
You said last week that we got our swagger back after the win. Do you still feel that way coming into here?
“I mean, always coming into here, I feel confident. So yeah, I do believe we could come here and have a good weekend. But I would say even prior to Darlington, I felt like we were back to being the No. 5 team-ish, in a way. You know, it had been so long since we were battling for a win and calling races for winning, so that was fun at Darlington. And then, you go ahead a week to Gateway and put on a performance like we did, yeah, I feel like were getting closer to where we want to be. But we still have room to go, for sure, a lot of room to go, to be dominant. But at least as far as team prep, execution and all the things it takes; I felt like these first-two weeks have gone really strong.”
With you being nine points behind Denny (Hamlin), we know you two have a very competitive relationship and just historically these next few tracks, do you see you and Denny going back and forth? Do you view him as one of your chief rivals for the championship, and what is it going to be like racing him, especially tomorrow night?
“Yeah, I mean definitely, they’ve been the fastest car, team and driver, consistently, throughout the year. He won the regular season points, so he came into the Chase as the No. 1 seed. So yeah, I mean if I’m battling him these next few weeks, it means we’re probably battling him towards the front, which is a good thing.
So yeah, we’ll see. We’ve had a lot of great battles over the course of my career, but especially the last five or six seasons now. It’s always fun battling him. You know, I feel like our two teams, just from the outside looking in, operate very similarly. We’ll see, but I don’t think I’m lying and I don’t think our team would disagree if I was to say I still believe he’s got the faster car at this point. But that doesn’t mean we can’t go out there and beat him, as well as the others. You know, I’m not just looking at Denny. I think we could all say he’s the favorite, but you still have to beat everybody as we’ve seen these last few races.”
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