NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 27, 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 Kansas Speedway. Larson – a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at Kansas – returns to the 1.5-mile oval as the track’s defending winner.
Media Availability Quotes:
I saw you went and met with Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes. Have you talked to those guys before or met them, and what was your experience like getting a chat with them?
“No, I hadn’t ever met them before, but I went out to the facility earlier this year. Brett Veach, the manager there, I didn’t know it until a couple years ago, but he’s a big fan of mine. He had us out and hosted us earlier this year, and then he was able to line it up again this time. It was really cool. We had Cliff (Daniels) out there, and Rudy Fugle is a huge Chiefs fan, so it was really neat to be there. We got to sit in the quarterback meeting before the practice, so that was really cool to see how they operate and prep for a practice. That was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it was cool to do that. Everybody there is extremely nice. I think because Brett’s such a big fan and talks about racing a lot, they kind of get it, so it’s cool.”
When you see those people prepare and stuff like that, what, if any, similarities or qualities do you see in other successful athletes like that that you find are similar here?
“Well, I think what I didn’t quite realize, just being a casual fan of football, was how much work it actually is. I just look at big buff football players, and I’m like, oh, they just probably have a couple meetings during the week, a couple practices, and just lift and get big and strong. But it sounds like their weeks are really long. There’s a lot of prep work; sounds like a lot of meetings. I would say by game day, they’re extremely prepared, so that was really neat to see, and just how much effort goes into prepping for a single game. Like I said, that was just eye-opening and really cool to see. It’s neat to see the culture and leadership that goes on there, and it makes sense why they’re so successful.”
I’m curious, are people like, oh my gosh, you met Patrick Mahomes, and did you think it was a big deal before or more after?
“Well, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really look at the social media stuff a lot, but I definitely had a handful of friends reach out and say that was really cool. You know, I’m friends with a lot of 49er fans, so I was surprised that none of them were like, oh, you traitor, or whatever (laughs).
But no, I think they’re such a big deal, right, like Mahomes, Kelce and even Brett Veach, that a lot of people, whether you cheer for that team or not, they have a lot of respect for those athletes. So yeah, I think everybody was pretty surprised and thought it was cool I got to hang out there.”
Coming back to Kansas, is there any kind of realization or frustration knowing this is the last place you won?
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not something that I’ve really thought about, I guess, until getting ready to come here this week. It’s like, wow, it’s been since here that we’ve last won. But I think with that, it gives you some confidence that it’s a place that we’ve ran well at for a long time now. We’ll hopefully have similar speed to what we had earlier in the year. It sounds like we had a great week in the shop and in the wind tunnel, so I think everybody at Hendrick Motorsports is excited to get on track to see where we kind of are on speed and balance compared to what we’ve been on the intermediates or tracks sort of similar… I know it’s been a while since we’ve been on the intermediate.
But, yeah, hopefully we have a good weekend; can run up front, get some good points and go into the ROVAL with an even bigger gap than what we have.”
The last two tracks in this round really cater to your skill set in the Next Gen car. Beyond the obvious goal that a win is, especially coming here, how impactful would defending your spring victory be for you?
“Well, it would be impactful because, like we’ve mentioned, I haven’t won a race since this one and really haven’t been that consistently good since this race earlier this year. So it would be nice to obviously get a win. We’ve been working extremely hard the last few months to get back to the point of where we were leading a bunch of laps and winning stages. And I feel like we’ve learned a lot along the way. So, yeah, I hope we can kind of put that all in motion and have a good day.”
You mentioned how big it is that you haven’t won since Kansas. Is that something that you think about often, especially going into a weekend?
“No, I don’t really think about it a whole lot. I don’t know… maybe you should, maybe you shouldn’t, I don’t really know. But I think you’re always looking ahead. You’re not really looking behind too much. You can probably ask Connor Zilisch, who’s won every race the last three months. He’s probably not thinking about the race he won two months ago. You’re just kind of looking ahead always.”
Have you ever done a fire suit swap before or anything, or is this your first time?
“I mean, we’ve definitely done some throughout the past, but it’s probably the most popular jersey I’ve got. So it’s really cool. I’ll probably definitely get it framed up and hang it in the game room of the house or something.”
How do you kind of evaluate where you are in the playoffs as compared to past years at this point, where we’re closing in on the halfway point of the playoffs?
“Yeah, I mean, you can’t really hide from it. It’s probably been our weakest playoffs of my career, at least at Hendrick Motorsports. You know, going through the first round with zero top-10s was not something that we expected. But we still gained good points throughout the first two races of that round, which was good. We just didn’t get the race finishes that we’ve had in the past. But then we had a good New Hampshire, where I know that track hasn’t been in the playoffs for a little while, but we ran better there than we have in the past.
So, yeah, I don’t know. We still have a lot of racing left to get back to what we’ve been. And like I said, I feel like we are getting better and better each week. Although it may be little improvements, it’s still stacking, and hopefully it kind of peaks at the right time.”
How has this year challenged you?
“Well, I would say the beginning of the season until the end of May was really good. You kind of know what you’re going to get for results and stuff each week you go to the track because we were just that strong. The schedule lined up really well for our organization; a lot of mile-and-a-halves and tracks that we were historically good at. And then the tracks that we haven’t been ‘lights out’ at, we were probably just a little bit worse than we have been in years prior. So that just challenges you and your team mentally and emotionally sometimes. We’ve dealt with a lot as a team this year. I don’t know what other teams have dealt with, but I don’t know if there’s a team that’s dealt with more than we have with losing a team member, pit crew swaps, different personnel changes. There’s just a lot that we’ve had to overcome, but I feel like we’ve worked really hard and although the results may not show it all the time, I feel like we are building and better than we were, say in June, for sure.”
Cliff (Daniels) referenced that too, that all the challenges you guys have gone through from a personal standpoint. I know he’s the leader, but as a driver, as a leader, what kind of role can you play or how have you tried to help your teammates because they’ve certainly gone through a lot this year…
“Yeah, I think just for me, just staying positive and motivated and not letting the team members see you down or not motivated. So trying to just keep putting in my best effort every week and letting them know that we have a shot to run well every week is always good.”
You mentioned you’re always looking ahead, so how far ahead are you looking? Are you just focused on this race or the ROVAL as well or even the Round of Eight?
“I mean, I just take it kind of week-by-week or really just by week, but definitely don’t look out of this round. So, yeah, just what we’ve got to do to execute this weekend and the points we need to earn to position ourselves well for next week is really what we’re looking at.”
Denny (Hamlin) and Ty Gibbs had some issues last week. I’m wondering, most of the Hendrick cars are still in. Alex (Bowman) is not. But what are the expectations on how championship contenders are supposed to race each other at Hendrick Motorsports?
“Yeah, I think you’re always just looking out for what you can do to make things a little bit easier on your teammates. Thankfully for me — TVs probably don’t even see the teamwork that happens, but like last week, Alex (Bowman) cut me a lot of breaks at the end of the first stage. I passed him, and then I was starting to die. He could have easily passed me back but kind of just rode back there. So it’s just little things like that where I think where Denny (Hamlin) was probably expecting that, as every team who has multiple cars, has had a conversation of those expectations. So I could see Denny’s frustration, for sure. And yeah, I’m sure they had a lot of talks this week, so I would expect it to be much better.”
Do you think a non-playoff driver should get out of the way of their teammates who are in the playoffs?
“At that point in the race, yeah. I mean, it was stage one, stage two, maybe. I think at the end — if you’re racing for a win, you’re racing for a win. You’re never going to give up a win in a Cup Series for a teammate. But I think if you’re running mid-pack in a stage, yeah, that expectation should be followed.”
About General Motors
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.
