Top-five result for Larson, HendrickCars.com team in St. Louis
TRACK: World Wide Technology Raceway
LENGTH: 1.25-mile oval
DATE: June 4, 2023
STARTED: 22nd
FINISHED: 4th
STANDINGS: 9th (-84 points)
Almost immediately following the green flag, a caution occurred on lap two. While under the yellow, lightning was identified near the Madison, Illinois track, with track activity paused for nearly two hours. When NASCAR deemed it safe for drivers to return to their cars and pit road opened, the No. 5 HendrickCars.com driver stayed out and chose 22nd for the restart with 37 laps to go in the stage. The Elk Grove, California driver struggled to find speed in his Chevy during the first stage, fluctuating positions in the back-half of the field. At lap 45, Larson was scored with a 28th-place stage finish.
The No. 5 driver relayed ride feedback to his crew chief Cliff Daniels. During the stage break, Daniels called the HendrickCars.com crew to complete a four tire and fuel pit stop with air pressure adjustments in an effort to improve performance. Larson chose 25th taking the outside line for the stage two restart. Following the green flag, a caution immediately occurred with Larson visiting pit road just to top-off on fuel before the lap 59 restart. During the next 32 green-laps, Larson gained six positions improving from the team’s prior adjustments. A caution waved on lap 92, and Larson visited pit road for right-side tires only and fuel, gaining positions on pit road. He chose 11th for the restart with 38 laps to go in the stage. For the duration of the stage, Larson raced amongst the top-13 positions and at the end of it secured a tenth-place finish.
The No. 5 team’s work was not done yet. During the stage break, Larson re-visited pit road for four tires, fuel and additional adjustments for the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. He chose 13th and took the outside for the final stage restart. In less than five laps, Larson drove his way up the field to enter the top-10. A caution occurred 20 laps later, with the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion running in the ninth position. Larson stopped again for right-side tires only, gaining eight positions on pit road. Larson led the field back to green from the outside with 57 laps to go. He settled into the second position for a string of five late-race cautions that started with 43 laps to go. Larson stayed out when pit road opened during the closing cautions and battled with Kyle Busch for the lead. Following the last caution of the race that occurred with five laps to go, Larson took the inside of the front row for the green-white flag overtime restart. At the checkered flag the HendrickCars.com team scored a fourth-place finish.
QUOTING KYLE LARSON:
“I want to be upset with fourth after running second there the last bit of the race and having a shot to line up on the front-row for the green-white-checkered. For a lot of the day, I thought I was going to run 20th on back. Huge thank you to Cliff Daniels (crew chief) and everybody on the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team for making the right adjustments. I don’t know if we were amazing, but the strategy calls were perfect and at the right time. I think the car would have been fine had we just run those last 50 laps under green.”
NEXT RACE:
Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet head to the West Coast where they will compete on Sonoma Raceway’s road course. The 110-lap race goes green at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
AdChoices