Kyle Larson made a quick decision not to complete the slide job, doors him instead; Dirt racing experience helped with running the wall
Kyle Busch found himself 3 and 4 wide with lap cars with 2 laps to go at Chicagoland Speedway. That presented Kyle Larson with a gift.
He closed quickly on the leader. As they took the white flag, Larson was within striking distance for the win.
He pulled the trigger into turn 1. But, it wasn’t a typical move for Larson. It wasn’t a slide job. Larson knew that if he did that, Busch would just cut under him and retake the lead.
Larson tried something different…
“I wasn’t really trying to make it in front of him. I figured if I ran in there and tried to clear him I would have had to slow down so much to not hit the wall that he would have just turned underneath me and it wouldn’t have even been a battle to the win,” Kyle Larson said after the race at Chicagoland Speedway.
“I didn’t initially go in there planning to run into the side of him. But, when I ran in there and figured I wasn’t going to have enough momentum to clear him and get going.”
“[From there], I kinda made the plan to squeeze into him. To bog him down. And it worked!”
“Just, he was able to get back to my back bumper into [turn] 3.
Are you ok with that move in turn 3?
“Yeah, I hit him first.”
“I roughed him up. He roughed me up. That’s racing.”
“I have a lot of respect for Kyle Busch. And he has a lot of respect for me. That was hard racing.”
“I had a lot of fun. I didn’t think I was going to get the opportunity to race him side by side for the win like that. I was getting really tight behind him.”
“I can’t be mad at him.”
Kyle Larson remained glued to the outside wall for most of the day on Sunday. I’m hesitant to call it a cushion. That’s not what it was. It was about maintaining momentum and making the straights aways slightly longer.
Did you channel your dirt racing roots?
“I think having a dirt background. Racing winged sprint cars a lot, running the cushion a lot… helps when you have to run inches off the wall like that.”
“I kinda think of like Eldora or something. If you’re running the top. You have to commit. You have to run the wall the whole corner.”
“I got a lot of laps doing that kinda stuff in sprint cars. That makes me comfortable when I get into the stock car stuff. I felt like I did a really good job today of staying disciplined. I only got the wall one time in turns 3-4.”
“I knew there was no other way I was going to pass him or get to him. Other than staying committed to the wall, even after I hit the wall.”
Lead Chevy
Kyle Larson has been the lead Chevy in 2019. He’s currently 9th in NASCAR Cup Series points. He doesn’t have a win yet but he’s come close with 6 top-5 runs.
How did that happen?
“I don’t know if we did extra planning or what. But, last year we outran the other Chevy’s a lot too. Even with the old style body.”
“I think our team’s just ahead of the other Chevy teams. Today. I actually felt like my car was a lot better than I was last year. I was really pleased with that. Typically at Chicago, I’m an 8th place car.”
More
Related: Chicagoland Speedway: Race Results (Video)
Related: Kyle Busch discusses the battle with Kyle Larson and the conversation after the race
