Driver motivated by last year's questioning; no such feelings in 2015
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The chatter around Kyle Larson in last year's "meet the press" session at Daytona International Speedway had a specific tenor to it, with the only thing certain being the uncertainty.
How would the bright-eyed rookie perform, and was team owner Chip Ganassi bringing him to NASCAR's top-level Sprint Cup Series too early? After last year's breakout, when he came ultra-close to knocking down the wall for his first big-league stock car win, Larson said there's some validation to quieting his former detractors.
"This Media Day's a lot different than last year's, for sure -- a lot different questions," Larson said Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. "I definitely paid attention to it, people doubting what we were going to be able to do last year and it fueled our team to go out and prove them wrong. I didn't let it get to me or anything like that.
"Just like anything else, I just go out there and do the best job I can, and I'm going to try to do the same thing this year."
He returns to Daytona this year with more maturity backing his 22 years, some of which comes with being a new father, just weeks after he and girlfriend Katelyn Sweet celebrated the Dec. 22 birth of young Owen Miyata. In terms of racing performance, he's also matured quickly on the track, wrapping the year with top-10 finishes in nearly half (17 of 36) of the Sprint Cup schedule last season.
After finishing second three times last year and becoming a more regular contender near the front of the pack, the outlook for 2015 is even brighter.
"Last year, nobody had any expectations for me except failing," Larson said. "The expectations are different this year, a little more pressure, but our team's not paying attention to any of those expectations. We're just going to go out there and do the best we can. I think we can run up front every week, hopefully, be competitive and try and get a couple wins."