Kyle Larson Warns Cup Series Drivers of COTA’s ‘Crazy’ Challenges With a 6-Word Claim

Young Money has notched up two wins for Hendrick Motorsports on their 40th anniversary. First, he won back his Vegas crown, emphatically adding to William Byron’s inaugural 2024 win for Rick Hendrick’s prestigious race team, and then Kyle Larson won HMS’s first Xfinity Series victory this season in the Focused Health 250 as NASCAR moved to COTA for its first road race of the year.

The Hendrick #5 switched his NextGen ZL1 body for the #17 Chevrolet Camaro in the NXS as he claimed his 15th victory in the second division while managing the perilous track limits and the new restart zone before the front stretch. He turned up his championship-pedigree expertise to beat out Trackhouse Racing-backed Kiwi road expert Shane van Gisbergen. Larson made a “crazy” observation about the “brand-new” COTA at Saturday’s Xfinity event.

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After the race, HMS #5 was characteristically silent and humble. He seemed content with his pole-to-P1 finish, as SVG lost his P2 due to a 30-second penalty for violating, you guessed it, track limits. Larson faced no such problems, and when he talked to SiriusXM’s NASCAR radio, he stated that there were other problems on the circuit. “It’s super bumpy in the one, even more so than I remember, way to the left, so that makes it crazier too, and the Cup race will be wild, I’m sure.”

On the other hand, Larson discussed the new restart zone in an apparent positive light after gaining first-hand experience for 46 laps of the 20 turns at the Austin Xfinity race. 

He said, “I really like the restart zone where it’s at. I feel like you can kinda mess with your angle coming to it. You can be deeper in the pack and pass kinda right away, and if you get a good launch you could still get positioned where you need to in the 1, so you can do some more gambling on lane selection which is nice, and then you still get all the craziness into the one, so its fun.”

As Larson’s HMS teammate and 2024 Daytona 500 winner, William Byron picked up the second consecutive pole position for the #24 car’s COTA advance. He expressed his own confidence from P15, “My Cup car felt good, I just didn’t do a good job in qualifying but I think it has got a good balance to where I can hopefully move forward.”

Additionally, with 1 win and two top-5s in five races run this season, the #5 has moved many steps “forward” in claiming double champ status in 2024.

The #5 is not the favorite for HMS at COTA

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The Cup race at COTA has historically seen Kyle Larson register an average finish of 15.0, with only 4 laps led in the last three years. He stands at 13th among all active drivers, below defending Cup Series champ Ryan Blaney of Team Penske. However, the Californian superstar has raced in 18 road races in the last three years since COTA’s arrival. Larson won two of these 18 races and registered seven top-5s; both of these victories came in his championship-winning year of 2021. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the #5 isn’t the best car at Austin for Hendrick Motorsports; it is the #9.

Chase Elliott won the inaugural Texas Grand Prix. This marked a dominant victory as he won one more road course race at the Brickyard that year, adding to his tally of seven road course wins for the 6x Most Popular Driver. He boasts an average finish of 2.5, the highest of all active drivers running at this year’s COTA race. He also managed a top-5 finish in the other race that he participated in on the 3.43-mile circuit track last year.

Alex Bowman is the next best for Mr. H at the Austin track, with three top-10s in all three runs for the #48 driver, but Larson, coming off of another momentous victory, will surely look forward to emerging as the next favorite as we head into the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix 2024.

Read More: William Byron Hoping to Draw Advantage From Track Changes as He Extends His Own Record at COTA