NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
October 10, 2026
With inclement weather forcing the cancellation of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the starting lineup for tomorrow’s Bank of America 400 will be set by the rulebook, putting the points leader, Kyle Larson, on the pole.
Media Availability Quotes:
You talked at Kansas (Speedway) about controlling the race from the front row and having your pit crew help you with track position. Now, you’re in a similar situation because of the metric. What kind of challenge will it be maintaining control here (at Charlotte Motor Speedway)? The grooves are a little bit narrower, so does that make it a little bit easier if you can get out front? Does it make the race at the green flag a little more intense to try and get that control?
“I actually think this (Charlotte Motor Speedway) is a harder track to maintain the lead, just because the grip is a lot less. At Kansas (Speedway), you can kind of maintain the lead pretty easily for three-quarters of the run, and then they start coming at you. At the 600, I got out to the lead a couple of different times, and the Gibbs cars were just faster and just passed me with no problem. At Kansas (Speedway), you’re just at like max velocity a lot of the run, where here (at Charlotte Motor Speedway), there’s a lot more off-throttle time and it just shapes up for easier passes. But if our car’s good, we’re going to try our best to get the lead and maintain it. We have a lot of confidence in our pit crew and everyone on this team, so hopefully we just have a little bit better car than we had in May, which I thought my car was really good, we were just a dash down on speed compared to them. I’m sure we’ve gotten a lot better since then.”
Do you think there’s just a natural pressure in having to defend a lead? You guys kind of, as the points leader, kind of get in this mentality of defending something instead of staying on the attack, especially with how The Chase has gone in all three series where guys have lost the points lead.
“No… I mean, for me at least to this point, I haven’t really thought about anything like that. I think the media tries to get you to think about it a lot, asking questions like that. But I think for us, I think we’ve done a good job of just focusing on our race and trying to maximize it, and I don’t think that you should venture off of that. Yeah, it’s easier said than done, I think. But we’ve done so well in these first five, so why change?”
No wins in the regular season and then you have five top-fives and two wins in the postseason. What changed or clicked for your team?
“I think we just took a lot of what we learned throughout the year. Not that we weren’t, but we were constantly learning, and it’s just kind of peaked at the right point. And then, our team has just been executing. It’s been amazing. I definitely didn’t think that we would start off The Chase like this, so just proud of this team. It’s just cool. You can never count out Hendrick Motorsports. It was tough to stay motivated and think that we would get to this point during the summer. But, again, I mean, you can’t count us out.”
What kind of a challenge is it not to have practice in one of these races?
“Yeah, I mean, this is just a difficult track. I would have liked to have gotten some laps and then not have qualified, but we’re all going to be learning at the same pace tomorrow or whenever the race may be. This place is so bumpy and slick. You’ve got to definitely build into comfort here, at least I feel like I’ve never been super comfortable here in the Next Gen car. But yeah, just try to get to lead, be able to pace yourself and learn what you can.”
What do you mean by not being super comfortable?
“It’s just so bumpy. It’s not bumpy like Las Vegas (Motor Speedway), it’s got like waves and stuff. This is like super high-frequency bumps and you want to just shake the tires out from underneath you. For me, sometimes it’s easy to step over that edge when you don’t feel like you’re there. And then other times, you’re so scared of that edge that you’re well underneath of it and you’re just trying to maximize the grip and speed where it’s tough.”
We’re going to head to Phoenix Raceway next weekend. Obviously, that race used to be the end of your season. Now, you guys have three races afterwards. What’s it like going there at this point in the season?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, it’s been the finale for so long, so it will probably feel a little bit awkward being there. But Phoenix is an amazing area. It’s a great racetrack. Always produces some good races and great finishes. I hope we can go there and be better than we’ve been. We’ve finished well there a lot, but never quite been great throughout the duration of a race, so we’d love to get our car balanced a bit better and be able to score a lot of points.”
What are some of the challenges at Phoenix Raceway for you guys?
“For me, I just don’t have a lot of grip. It’s just like a really awkward, loose feeling, where I just feel like I could spin out, honestly, at any point, especially off turn two. But then I have to go so slow on entry to not get loose, too. It’s just difficult. I think everybody’s cars will drive amazing there, but you get the Penske guys, they seem to go really fast. (Christopher) Bell is super good there. Denny (Hamlin) was really, really strong there last year. We’re usually like an eighth to 12th-place guy, I feel like. We just always want to get better, and we’re always working hard, we just haven’t quite hit it yet.”
Are you glad that they changed this race from the ROVAL back to the oval?
“Well, I mean, as a racing purist, I’m happy to be back on the oval. But also, I didn’t hate the ROVAL. I always looked forward to it and thought it was fun. We were able to win a couple times here, which helps, but outside of those couple wins, it was a difficult track for me, as well. I was fine either way, honestly. It didn’t really matter to me. But I think for a postseason in NASCAR, not all ovals, but more ovals are a little bit purer for what NASCAR is aiming for.”
How did you rate Brexton’s (Busch) burnout last night?
“10 out of 10. Yeah, it was good. He did a great job. It was just special to see that. It was just cool to be a part of the program. I was a bit surprised and shocked that they wanted me to be a part of the program because I feel like there were a lot of other drivers that were closer to him than I was. But yeah, just being able to get up there and talk about him outside of a NASCAR setting was good. We all miss Kyle a lot. Samantha and Kyle both did an amazing job raising their kids, and we’ll get to see the Busch’s on the racetrack for a long, long time.”
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