Larson's top-15 finish in Charlotte Roval race advances No. 5 team in playoffs
TRACK: Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval
LENGTH: 2.32-mile road course
DATE: Oct. 8, 2023
STARTED: 36th
FINISHED: 13th
STANDINGS: 4th
Kyle Larson and the No. 5 team overcame adversity in HendrickCars.com’s final Home race weekend of the season.
During practice on Saturday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camero ZL1 made contact with the wall and was forced to a back-up car and 36th-place starting position for Sunday’s race.
In front of his largest teammate-cheering section, with 25 dealerships in the area, Larson took the green flag and wasted no time passing competitors. He carefully navigated the 17-turn 2.132-mile track and halfway through stage one, Larson was already up 10 positions from the start of the event. The 31-year-old driver reported he was tight in a couple of the turns. With five laps remaining in the stage, crew chief Cliff Daniels called his driver down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. With varying pit strategies playing out, Larson was scored in 24th at the end of the of the 25-lap stage.
With some competitors pitting during the stage break, Larson stayed out stayed out when pit road opened and moved up to choose 17th for the stage-two restart. The Elk Grove, California, native quickly gained three spots on the restart and maintained that position for the majority of the next 10 laps. With less than 10 laps to go in the stage, a second green-flag pit cycle began. Larson stayed out in an effort to maximize his stage-two finish, finishing in the fifth position and collecting valuable stage points.
Under the yellow, Larson came to the attention of his crew. A quick four-tire and fuel pit stop from the HendrickCars.com crew gained the team a position on pit road. With the majority of competitors staying out during the stage break though, Larson chose 31st for the final stage restart. He wasted no time working his way back up the field though. In less than 10 laps, Larson had gained 10 positions and didn’t stop there. With 38 laps to go, the No. 5 driver was running 14th when he made a green-flag pit stop for four tires and fuel, just before a caution occurred on lap 75. Larson stayed out when pit road opened and restarted 12th with 31 laps to go. This started a series of three more consecutive cautions over the next 20 laps. The HendrickCars.com driver stayed out every time pit road opened and avoided an on-track incident with 21 laps to go that advanced him inside the top 10. The final restart of the race occurred with 10 laps to go and Larson chose ninth but elected to take the outside lane. The final circuits at the ROVAL playoff cutoff race were intense, but the 2021 Cup Series champion was able to score a 13th-place finish. This finish locked Larson into the Cup Series playoff Round of 8 in both the driver and owner standings.
QUOTING KYLE LARSON:
“It was a stressful weekend, but the No. 5 team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports did a great job working hard on this backup car late last night. I felt like our car was really good today. We were just pretty conservative there at times. I just didn’t want to make a mistake like I did last year and take ourselves completely out of it. It was just stressful there the final stage, but we were able to get in, which was the goal.”
NEXT RACE:
Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team will head west to Las Vegas to race in the first of three Round of 8 playoff races. The 400-mile race from Las Vegas Motor Speedway takes place Sunday, Oct. 15 at 2:30 p.m. and will be televised live on NBC.
AdChoices