Kyle Larson’s schedule hasn’t slowed down any as he prepares to end the regular season and start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Even though NASCAR’s top division had last weekend off, Larson’s schedule did not slow down as the series headed to Darlington Raceway for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 that included racing a sprint car with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions in Pennsylvania.
“It didn’t feel like an off weekend for me,” Larson said. “I didn’t even pay attention really. I think being able to have a test in the middle of the off week was good. I felt like our Richmond test went really well. I felt like we learned quite a bit, hopefully, you never really know until you get into a racing situation, but I felt like we were one of the faster cars there at the Richmond test.
“Like I said, we learned some things, so hopefully those things that we learned, we can … I know we have already put some into the Darlington car, so we will see if it works or not.”
With only two races remaining to close out the regular season before the playoffs begin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Larson is still winless over the first 24 events. His latest outing two weeks ago at Bristol ended in disappointment even though Larson finished second to Kurt Busch. It was still a surprise to Larson who expects more at the Tennessee short track.
“I don’t know, an off race,” said Larson. “I think my expectations are just really high whenever I go to Bristol. I was in a bad mood for a lot of that race I think just because my expectations are high when I go to Bristol.
“I was kind of a negative person throughout the first half of the race, but once I gave myself some realistic expectations for the rest of the race I was in a better mood, but still wanted to… like I told Chad (Johnston, crew chief), I’m sorry I was an a-hole on the radio, I just expect to go there and lap the field.
Larson will be in the playoffs when they begin and plans on doing everything possible to win before then either this weekend at Darlington or at the regular season finale in Indianapolis. However his optimism for running well comes with the realization his team has to find a way to keep improving in order to compete for Victory Lane and a championship.
“Like I said, I feel like I’ve got a great team and we continue to make our stuff better and innovate and try to get faster we’ve just got to keep hitting on some things,” he said.
