Inside the garage: Kyle Larson returns to Kansas, site of his last victory 32 races ago

Here’s what’s happening inside the garage this week: Bristol Motor Speedway (Bristol, Tenn.) — Kyle Larson will return to Kansas Speedway this weekend, site of his last race victory nearly a year ago. Well, he gained something during that time. He won a championship. But not a race. In the world of NASCAR Cup Series racing, Larson is heading into what should be a daunting milestone. The highly talented and highly regarded driver has gone 32 races without a win and returns to the track of his most recent victory. The fact that he triumphed certainly eased any pain, as he captured his second Cup title by finishing top of the championship-eligible finalists in the 2025 season finale in Phoenix. [NASCAR TAKEAWAYS: Ty Gibbs Captures First Career Cup Victory] The Hendrick Motorsports driver also earned six second and third place finishes, including a third on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway where he led a race record 284 laps. “It’s kind of crazy to think it’s been almost a year since I won because I don’t feel like we’re that bad,” Larson said during a virtual press conference five days before Bristol. “In the end, celebrating the championship in Phoenix felt like a victory in many ways. “We want to get back to Victory Lane. We are working as hard as ever. We want to win. …This series is difficult. I know we’ve often made victory look easy, but it’s not. And I never thought it was easy. So we have to keep working on it.” Considered one of the most talented drivers (Larson has 32 career Cup victories) regardless of car, Larson has won in sprint cars and other NASCAR series since his victory last May at Kansas. So he’s had that winning feeling after several races, not just last November’s championship. His team, however, hasn’t. “We’re very aware that we didn’t win on a Sunday. “And yeah, the championship is one thing, but we haven’t taken the checkered flag in probably a calendar year,” Larson crew chief Cliff Daniels told me Sunday after the Bristol race. changed, he didn’t have such a strong car. It was still a weekend where he and Larson could feel good about each other. “We executed well,” Larson told me and other reporters after the race. … The way I executed lap traffic was good with a loose race car. “It could have been worse. And I felt like we made the most of the day.” Larson and Daniels have worked together since Larson joined Hendrick for the 2021 season. They immediately won a championship with a 10-win season in 2021. They won 14 races in the four years since, as NASCAR moved to the Next Gen car, which created more parity. The team changed pit crew members last season and had additional changes to the team for this season regarding the engineering staff. “[Daniels] “He’s the most competitive person I know, so I’m sure it’s killing him that we haven’t won in almost a year now, but I feel like he’s doing a good job of harnessing his emotions and keeping us all focused,” Larson said. “Because I think if he went on a rampage like he maybe would have if he was still the same Cliff as he was in 2022, guys would just get beat up and that’s never a good thing. I’m super happy with Cliff and super happy with our whole team. It’s just that we haven’t gotten the wins.” Larson sits sixth in the Cup standings, certainly a position in which he can win a championship, especially if the team is gradually improving as we continue to learn the new bodywork Chevrolet introduced this year. “We’re reasonably strong to start the year,” Daniels told me. “There are definitely areas where we can be better… You know, how do you eat an elephant? “And our day will come, and our team will continue to build and get stronger, and that’s our goal.” like we could have won four to five races in that time without winning, maybe even more,” Larson said. “It just didn’t happen. So we can’t lose sight of the process and continue to work hard.” No Talladega for McFarland NASCAR says it wants to see Cleetus McFarland on shorter tracks in the O’Reilly Series before granting approval for a 1.5-mile track (a higher speed track). So the YouTube star can’t travel to Kansas this weekend to be approved for Talladega the following week. McFarland was hoping to be able to race at Talladega by finishing the Rockingham race on the 1-mile oval But a few out-of-control moments were apparently a bit too much for NASCAR to grant him approval for its top developmental series. McFarland remains approved for all ARCA and Truck Series tracks “We are all big fans of Cleetus,” said John Probst, executive vice president of NASCAR, in a statement released by the sanctioning body. “We all watch his videos and are certainly very grateful for everything he has done in our sport. in our sport. (…) We would like to see more of Cleetus in the short tracks. “So we’re not saying no. [forever]but there’s more we’d like to see from Cleetus before we approve him for Talladega. ” McFarland said in a Facebook video post: “I have a lot to learn…It’s a little kick in the nuts, but I just need to go out there in other cars and learn as much as I can. because Formula 2 added an event in Montreal for the same weekend. So far, 31 Indy 500 races have been announced. One more Chevrolet and Honda are still possible but not definitive – the first stage at Talladega will be longer than the last two stages to try to mitigate fuel consumption incentives, with the tentative plan being a 98-lap first stage and the final two stages. – Joe Gibbs Racing still has a temporary restraining order preventing Chris Gabehart from performing similar duties from his former role as JGR competition director in his new role as motorsport director at Spire. — INDYCAR drivers Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward participated in a Firestone tire test last Tuesday at Nashville Superspeedway. It was in Nashville that O’Ward took the lead, then a tire failure was noted. Firestone developed a new right front for Phoenix based on this problem and this test built on what was learned from there — The Legacy Motor Club has a new president: JGR COO Michael Guttilla, who will report to Legacy CEO Cal Wells, who was an engineer at Multimatic for decades and vice president. JGR in 2023. Legacy and JGR are collaborating while the Toyota and JGR teams have approved this decision. Under the Radar Dawson Sutton slapped the wall during Truck Series testing at Bristol, but bounced back to finish seventh in the race. The next day, he won the CARS Tour Late Model race at the Nashville Fairgrounds. Nobody was happy about it.” — Bubba Wallace on Carson Hocevar’s destruction at Martinsville. In Inside The Garage, Bob Pockrass takes us behind the scenes of the world of motorsports as only he can.