RECENT RECAP: Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, finished fourth at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday – his first top-five finish for Hendrick Motorsports and second top-10 finish of 2021. He led five laps in the 267-lap race won by teammate William Byron. Larson is eighth in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 42 markers back from leader Denny Hamlin.
OH-SO-CLOSE ON 1.5-MILERS: Larson has yet to visit victory lane in 71 career Cup Series starts on 1.5-mile tracks, but the 2014 NASCAR rookie of the year has nine second-place finishes, 21 top-five finishes, six stage wins and has led 799 laps in those events. His nine runner-up finishes on 1.5-milers are the most all-time without a victory.
GOOD ODDS FOR TOP-10: In nine previous Cup starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Larson has three top-five finishes and six top-10s, including a ninth-place finish in this event last year. He posted runner-up results at LVMS in 2017 and 2018.
DOUBLE TAKE: The No. 5 HendrickCars.com paint scheme Larson will drive in 2021 will look familiar to longtime NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports fans. Ricky Hendrick, the late son of Rick Hendrick, drove a similar scheme to victory in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Kansas Speedway in 2001. In 2002, the paint scheme appeared on the No. 5 Chevrolet entry driven by Hendrick during the NASCAR Xfinity Series season. For a close-up look of Larson's No. 5 Chevrolet, click here.
CLIFF’S NOTES: No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels was atop the pit box for seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson during the 2020 season. In this race last year, Daniels helped guide Johnson to a fifth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
YOUR CAR NEEDS: This weekend, Larson will drive the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. From the convenience of home, customers can select the category, make, model and vehicle packages that are important to them from the nearly 30,000 new, high-quality pre-owned and certified cars, trucks and SUVs available at HendrickCars.com. The website also makes it easy for customers to find one of Hendrick Automotive Group’s 93 dealership locations nationwide.
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on the Las Vegas track characteristics: “I’m excited to get to Las Vegas – it’s a track that has suited my driving style in the past. It’s usually pretty warm, so the track gets slick and slower. You can move around and even run the top, and you can position your car in certain ways to get through the bumps in turns one and two. A key to running well is being able to move around and adjust your line throughout the race. Hopefully we can go there and get a win. I have been close a few times. Now that I’m driving for Hendrick Motorsports, I’m interested to see if the car drives differently, especially over the bumps in (turns) one and two.”
Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on having Larson’s feedback after completing a race on a 1.5-mile track: “It’s so tough to go into some of these races now with no data point of what Kyle needs. We went into Homestead with some old notes based on our teammates from last year and the car ran okay, but not as well as we expected for ourselves. We should have been better. But to be a little bit off and to still finish top six in each stage and finish fourth in the race was okay. But now that we have that mark in the sand – that data point – of what he needs, it’s helping so much as we prepare for Vegas. Just from that one data point, there are a lot of dots we can connect.”
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