Page 68 - 2019_NPPG_digital copy

KYLE LARSON

Birth Date: July 31, 1992 Hometown: Elk Grove, CA
Team: No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 / Chip Ganassi Racing

Kyle Larson was the “Can’t Miss Kid” in 2014 when team owner Chip
Ganassi made a pre-emptive strike and brought him up to what is now the
2018 featured drivers This was after others with an equally discerning eye for talent pegged
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

him as “the real deal” and the sport’s next star. In 2011, he won all three
divisions of USAC Racing – Silver Crown, Sprint Cars and Midgets – in a
single night at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway and the 2015 Rolex 24 at
Daytona sports car race.

While he’s shown bursts of speed in a full-bodied stock car, he’s still a
work in progress. FOLLOW ONLINE

After winning for the first time in 2016 at Michigan and following that up in
2017 with four trips to Victory Lane, Larson failed to win a year ago in the @KYLELARSONRACIN @KyleLarson42
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

“This [2017] year was the first where we actually had a solid season,” kylelarsonracing.com @KyleLarsonRacing
Larson, a veteran of the sprint car wars who still finds time to compete on
dirt in a variety of open-wheel machinery – some of which he owns – said.
“We had some off-races but this is the first year where I felt competitive Larson will have the benefit of a new teammate. Kurt Busch, the
every weekend and knew going to the track we would have a shot to run 2004 Cup champion, joined Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the No. 1
top-five, if not get a win. Chevrolet. Together, Larson believes there’s a lot they can teach
each other.
“That’s a position I’ve always wanted to be in, in Cup and it was nice that
this year we got the opportunity to showcase how good our team is.” “Being a teammate with a champion is really cool,” Larson said. “I
think I’ll be able to learn a lot off him. I think he’s going to push me
Then came 2018. Although he qualified for the NASCAR Playoffs, he was to be a better race car driver, really. I’m looking forward to working
eliminated after the second round with 12 top-fives and 19 top-10s, but with him.
he also had seven finishes of 23rd or worse to wind up ninth in the final
standings. “I think the style of racing has changed some from, say, a decade
ago,” Larson said. “There’s a lot of younger, it seems like, really
Even more perplexing was the fact he was so close to winning – he aggressive drivers out there. Just with [Busch] being able to see me
finished second six times and third four more times – but unable to close and my aggression even more so up-close and being on the same
the deal. The biggest letdown came at the Darlington Raceway where he team and looking at the driver data, yeah, maybe there’s some things
led 284 of 367 laps. A slow final pit stop, and even slower restart following he can learn.”
the final caution, dropped him to a disappointing third-place finish.
Chad Johnston, crew chief since taking over in 2016, returns and
Adjusting to the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 proved to be more time- the Ganassi organization made a solid hire with the addition of Doug
consuming than most thought. But like others in the Chevy camp, Larson Duchardt as COO ahead of the 2018 season. Duchardt, a former
starting making progress during the second half of the season – enough to GM official, spent 12 years at Hendrick Motorsports overseeing that
make the playoff field, but not enough to survive the second-round cut. organization’s racing operations as executive vice president and
general manager.
“I mean, obviously I would have liked to have made it into the next round,”
he said “But I’m glad it wasn’t anything other than just us not performing “I’d like to think and hope that we could start out as good as what we
where we needed to be that kept us out of the next round. Just trying were [in 2017], if not better, with the new car and another year as a
to figure out how to make our cars better, trying to figure out this new team together,” Larson said. “But you never know.”
package we’re running next year, try to be prepared, good all season long.”

68 THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2019 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE