‘It makes it tougher to pass,’ Reigning Cup Champion Kyle Larson on how much shifting be a factor in Gateway
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Kyle Larson
NASCAR will hit the World-Wide Technology Raceway this weekend for the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300. The 1.25-mile St. Louis oval is featuring in the cup schedule for the first time since it started hosting NASCAR series races in 1997 and the new track along with the next-gen cars is expected to produce an amazing day of racing as multiple challenges await even for the most experienced and accomplished drivers in the pack.
The uniqueness of the track brings many challenges among which the prominent one will be the challenge of the constant shifting that comes after the difference among the turns of the track. Many drivers and crew chiefs have come forth acknowledging that the shifting will be a major challenge for everyone to overcome and now reigning cup series champion Kyle Larson has come forth expressing his views on the matter.
Find out what Kyle Larson said
Kyle Larson acknowledged that the shifting factor will make it tougher to pass as it keeps the pace up him. He went on to say that the fact that in order to make passes in the next-gen cars it is necessary for the pace to fall off obviously doesn’t happen in Gateway as the pace doesn’t fall off that much in the oval. He added that the Next-Gen cars and aerodynamics make things tougher.
“I think it makes it tougher to pass because it keeps your pace up, it seems. If lap times start slowing down, you start to downshift to go faster. I think we’ve all learned that you need pace to fall off to pass and now, with shifting, the pace doesn’t fall off quite as much, so it makes things a little tougher. These cars and the aerodynamics make things a little tougher as well, but we’ll see,” Kyle Larson said.
Kyle Larson went on to say that he doesn’t know how much pace he can generate this weekend as it will be harder to make a pass whether drivers are shifting or not. He added that the track is just pretty flat and is a high grip style track which is also a factor that can minimize passing. Kyle Larson reiterated that with or without shifting it will be hard to make a pass in the Gateway track.
“I don’t know how this place will be this weekend. I think it’ll be hard to pass whether we’ll be shifting or not. I think it’s just a pretty flat, looks-like-high-grip style racetrack, so those are typically hard to pass. With shifting, who knows? Regardless, I think it’ll be difficult to pass anyways,” Kyle Larson added.
“I don’t think it helps the racing any,” Kyle Larson’s HMS teammate Alex Bowman agrees with the champion on the shifting factor
The No:48 HMS Camaro ZL1 driver Alex Bowman expressed his thoughts on downshifting saying he doesn’t see it helping in any way in racing as it forces the drivers to run in the same transaxle at most racetracks. He went on to say the shifting factor posses’ scares such as a missing corner, not getting back to throttle very well, not pointing right, and missing the good spot. Bowman added that all that will make it harder to pass on the track.
“I don’t think it helps the racing any. I think the thing that creates it is we’re running the same transaxle at most racetracks. I think what it does for the racing is: a guy can miss the corner, not be back to the throttle very well, not pointed right, not in a good spot, and just downshift and get off the corner just fine. That just makes it harder to pass and harder to set up passes,” Alex Bowman said.
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