SONOMA, Calif. — Kyle Larson was all smiles and thumbs-ups at Sonoma Raceway prior to Friday’s opening practice on the challenging 2.52-mile Northern California road course.
The scenic course is a little more than an hour drive from Larson’s hometown of Elk Grove, California, and the 23-year old driver has proven himself a talented road course racer in his young career with a win in the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona and a victory here in Sonoma in the 2014 NASCAR K&N West Series race.
All that aside, however, Larson is quite simply, just ready to win in the Sprint Cup ranks.
He has two top-five finishes in the last five races, including a runner-up at Dover and a third place finish in the Sprint Cup Series’ most recent race at Michigan.
“I don’t know about pressure, but it would be nice to be the next new person to win a (Sprint) Cup Series race,” said Larson, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet.
“It’s been a long time since a new person has won. There are a crop of us young guys in our early 20s that would like to get a win. Chase (Elliott) is probably realistically got the best chance. He has been so close week after week now. Austin (Dillon) started the year out really strong. But I like road courses a lot. So, we will try and get it this week.”
Larson has proven himself at Sonoma, setting the Sprint Cup Series track record during early round qualifying last year. He’s had a pair of top-four starts but never a top-10 finish. His best Sprint Cup Series finish on a road course is fourth place at Watkins Glen during his 2014 rookie season.
He was fastest in opening practice at Sonoma on Friday.
“I’m getting more experience, but still I probably ran a little over 10 road course races in my life,” Larson said with a smile. “But I like them because you can feel the car kind of move around a lot more. You can feel the suspension, so it feels more similar to kind of a dirt track. I don’t know if it’s the dirt track, but just sprint cars and stuff the suspension moves around a lot and you can feel the balance of the car. On this stuff you can too.
“Where on the ovals our cars are so stiff and rigid you can’t really feel a whole lot with them. I think that is why I can feel the a little bit better and these tracks get really slick and you have to hit your marks every lap which is something I feel like I’m okay at.”
Larson is also finding his groove with new crew chief Chad Johnston. The veteran came to Larson’s team this year from the Stewart-Haas organization and Larson thinks a large reason he is running better is because the two are getting into sync now.
After four finishes of 30th or worse in the first 11 races, Larson hasn’t finished worse than 13th in the last four races. He’s ranked 21st in the standings, 38 points behind 16th place rookie Ryan Blaney in the final Chase spot.
“I haven’t had any experience with a new crew chief coming in before Chad,” Larson explained. “I haven’t been in the sport very long, so I think when somebody new like that comes in from an established or championship winning race team like that or any race team really. It’s hard for them to come in and make all the changes that they want right away.
“It’s kind of a process. It took some time, a couple of months and now we are building race cars the way Chad wants them built, the bodies all that stuff. It has made our level or speed in the race cars get quicker. I think that has been the main thing is Chad’s influence has been key the last couple of months and we have been building the cars how he wants them.
“I think Chad and Phil (Surgen) my engineer they have probably learned me now and the way I communicate and how big of an adjustment I need or how small. I just think it takes a little bit of time to get working together right and now we seem to be clicking.”
Nine times Larson has finished in the top-three and he had eight top-five finishes in his rookie season. He’s led laps in three of the last four races.
“We all want to win so bad,” Larson said.”We are all working hard to keep our cars fast and keep up with an ever-changing garage area. So, I guess the pressure is there to get the win while we are running well.
“You look at Chip Ganassi in the past, they are probably that team you describe where we get so close and then we lose it and have to spend a year or half a season regrouping and getting back to where we need to be.
“We have made huge gains so far this season. We just have to stay on top of it and hope we get a win.”