Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson is widely regarded as one of the best race car drivers in the world – the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion wins in every sort of car he drives and is poised to make his second Indianapolis 500 start next month.
The one missing style of trophy in the 32-year old’s large trophy case, however, is a superspeedway-type victory. A 31-race winner, he is 0-for-20 on Talladega’s high banks with a best showing of fourth last October. He is 0-for-22 at Daytona with no top-fives. His best showing is sixth there.
Even bolstered with a pair of wins already this season, he says it doesn’t necessarily change his approach for Sunday – doesn’t mean he will race any more aggressively.
“Sure, it’s nice to have a win before coming here, but it’s kind of been that way for me since joining Hendrick (2021) we’ve always had a win before going to Talladega,’’ Larson said. “I don’t know what it would be like mentally if we didn’t have a win. So yeah, I just believe in treating every weekend the same. It would be nice to get a win here but you don’t put any more or any less emphasis on it than every weekend.’’
