Kyle Larson made a high-risk, high-reward move in an effort to win Sunday's race at Homestead, which didn't pan out. Now, he's below the cutline heading into Martinsville. Larson doesn't regret the move, and vows to remain aggressive going forward.
Despite a frustrating afternoon, which was derailed by a flat tire early in last Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kyle Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team continued to claw their way back into contention throughout the 267-lap race. Miraculously, in the closing laps, Larson found himself in the runner-up position and he was chasing down Ryan Blaney for a potential Championship 4 berth-clinching win.
"I mean sure I'm bummed that I went for a gap, spun, and lost my shot to win. It's happened to me a number of times in my career. But at the same point, I'm proud of myself, because I stayed mentally in it to that point to put myself in a position to win," Larson explained. "I'm not sure if there's many other drivers that could have done it. So, I'm happy that I was able to do that.
"Sure, I would have liked for that move to work, but I think it's really easy to look back and fans, or even myself look back and say, 'Well, you should have just waited, you should have waited a lap or two.' Like, that sounds so easy, but these cars are so difficult to drive in traffic, and it's really hard to get within five car lengths of somebody once you're deep into a run, and all of that, and running near the wall," Larson said.
While Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team lives and dies with Larson's aggressive on-track moves on a weekly basis, the driver says that his team has always had his back whether his moves pan out or not, and they were there to support him after Sunday's "I have a lot more confidence than I would have had there five years ago," Larson laughed about the 0.526-mile short track in Virginia. "Being this close to the cutoff, I feel like since joining Hendrick, it's actually been one of my better tracks. Maybe not from points scored, but finish-wise, we've won, we've finished second a couple of times, maybe, finished in the top five maybe one or two other times. So, yeah, I have confidence going there.
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