NASCAR CUP SERIES: FOOD CITY 500

April 13, 2025

Kyle Larson

Frontstretch Quotes

An Interview with:

Q. Kyle, what a dominant performance. You won two of the three races this weekend, but I just heard you say on the radio, We did this one for Jon. What did Jon mean to you, Kyle?

KYLE LARSON: This one is definitely for Jon. He is just a great guy here, so we're going to miss him, but successful weekend here. Wish he was going to be here with us to celebrate, but I know he's celebrating with us in spirit.

Yeah, just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team. Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun. You know, however many laps of green we ran, there was a lot of fun. I was pretty comfortable with things. Then Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle, and then, yeah, just kind of kept the pressure on from there.

I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic. Felt like I did a pretty good job there in traffic. Split the middle sometimes when I needed to. So, yeah, just a lot of fun. A little bit out of breath. Just so high-paced here, and heart rate is up.

So really cool. Thanks to Hendrickcars.com, Chevy, Prime, Valvoline, this whole team. You know, the pit crew, this is their first win with the 5 team. It's going to be fun celebrating with them.

Yeah, good to be back at victory lane.

Q. Cliff Daniels, your crew chief, told me we're going to have to play in the moment. We don't know what to expect today. Kyle, this is not the race we all expected. From your perspective, I mean, at what point did you realize, this is not going to be a tire conservation race?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don't know. Early on, yeah, we were all kind of just riding in line like we did in the spring last year, and I was just trying to keep an eye on the track.

I felt like, you know, it was starting to get a little bit darker on exit, so I was, like, All right, that means some rubber is laying down. Then people kind of got the middle working. Then we get back down. I was like, Screw it, I'm just going to go to the lead here and pick the pace up and maybe the pace will help lay the rubber down even more.

It did, and it turned into a normal Bristol track there for us. So really played in our favor. Obviously having track position helps a lot.

You know, if Denny is in front of me, it could be a totally different story and be really hard to pass him, but glad to stop his three-peat. We hate to see him win, as I'm sure you guys do too. It's just good to be back here at victory lane.