Kyle Larson Bluntly Shoots Down Iowa Fears Despite Unwarranted Tire Blowouts That Left Him Scratching His Head

Problems arose ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series entry in Iowa. Drivers took part in practice on Saturday, bumping into wheel problems. The Hawkeye State short track has seen several Cup drivers win in other racing series. However, driving the Next-Gen car equipped with Goodyear tires is something entirely novel. Yet Sonoma champ Kyle Larson is not so worried.

Being one of the three drivers to conduct a tire test at the 0.875-mile oval, Larson is confident. The Hendrick driver does not foresee any trouble at the track. Yet the practice dilemma is baffling him as well.

Tire trouble puzzles Kyle Larson

Iowa Speedway has conducted races since 2006, marking its last repave as well. Two lanes of the entrances and exits of turns two and four were repaved, and the notorious bump between turns 1 and 2 was taken care of. During the tire test on May 28th, the pace was incredibly fast. Kyle Larson believed that adding more cars would open other lanes and improve racing.

However, Cup drivers encountered unexpected issues today; at least five had severe tire problems. After the practice session, Kyle Larson addressed the evolved feel of the track since the test. “I’m sure the tractions probably changed that much since then, which I was very very loose in…Except I wasn’t that loose in the test. The first half a pack I was super loose. But I thought, I felt like we got that a little better, and could start running some comfortable laps. So it trended to get similar to when the test ended.”

Kyle Larson’s comfort contrasted with that of his competitors, who got cut tires. Christopher Bell, another tire testee, suffered a cut tire 19 laps into the practice and contacted the wall hard. The JGR driver would now require a backup car for the Iowa Corn 350. Four other drivers also mysteriously damaged their tires, although they could retain their cars: Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, and Tyler Reddick. Bell scratched his head after this dilemma: “I just did the tire test here three weeks ago, and we did 50 lap runs all day long. I don’t know.”

Despite being one of the luckier lot, Kyle Larson also sounded puzzled, as he mentioned his teamwork has not been up to par. “I don’t know. I’m not sure why people are blowing so many tires right now. See, I haven’t had time to talk to the team. I don’t think they’ve had time to, you know, study tires on our end as an organization. So yeah, I’m not really sure what the answer is yet.”

Yet the uncertainty thrills Larson even more, as NASCAR already has a fix for a dire scenario.

Iowa weather bandages are in place

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Kyle Larson went through a heartbreak two weeks ago on Memorial Day weekend. The inclement weather made him miss the Coca-Cola 600, where he could not even turn a single lap. However, after NASCAR granted him a waiver, the Hendrick Motorsports driver is smiling again. He looks forward to the uncertainty of the Iowa race. “Honestly, the unknown of everything, I think, makes things exciting and competitive and all that. So yeah, it’s going to be fun.”

And NASCAR is there to ensure things are fun. In the event that Mother Nature intervenes yet again with unwanted rain, the sanctioning body has a fix. Matt Humphrey, a communications manager for NASCAR. Said wet-weather tires could be used on the Cup Series’ debut in Iowa. Since NASCAR introduced its Goodyear wet-weather radial tires for oval tracks a mile-long or less last year, the Iowa short track hopefully will not face problems.

Kyle Larson’s optimism contrasts with his rivals’ mindsets. Let us wait and see how far the tire issue drags on the final race this Sunday.