Kyle Larson isn’t having fun with Daytona 500 practice
NASCAR is set to open their regular season with their biggest event of the season. The Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday in Daytona Beach, Florida.
In recent years, NASCAR has drastically reduced practice. Most weekends are condensed with just two days of on-track action for the NASCAR Cup Series.
That’s part of the plan. One less day at the track saves the teams money on hotel and personnel bills.
Practice is usually limited. Even this weekend at Daytona, teams rolled to the track for qualifying and The Duels, before a practice session. There is no pre-qualifying practice like there was in years past.
But on Friday afternoon, after racing the Duels, teams finally ran their first practice session of Daytona Speedweeks. Most teams only ran in small packs, with teammates. There was never any huge groups of cars.
If a driver crashes in practice, it would move them to the back of the grid for Sunday’s Daytona 500. That’s on the mind of the teams and drivers.
And, for some drivers, it makes the session completely useless…
Daytona Practice Results: February 16, 2024 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Kyle Larson comments on Daytona practice
“I’m not bummed or anything about the car,” Kyle Larson told Fox Sports.
“Like, we make these little pack runs. You can’t really learn anything. So, that’s what I guess I’m bummed about.”
“You hope you can go out there and learn something about your car. I just honestly feel like I wasted 50 something minutes of my life right there.”
“But, it was good to make some runs down the pit road, stuff like that. I guess that was good. But, the rest of it was like, ‘What am I doing?’ “
“I’m always honest.”
“I was just hoping that we would have more speed and we could generate more energy, push and all that. But, none of us had the speed to break the bubble.”
“But, I don’t think that means anything for [the race]. Yesterday, I was really good at pushing and I received pushes well. But, the pack’s way bigger and you’re two wide. The energy is way different than it is here when you’re trying to be safer and all that.”
There’s still one NASCAR Cup Series practice remaining. Teams will return to the track on Saturday for final practice.
