“I am mad,” Kyle Larson disheartened as teammate William Byron outraced him for the second week in a row
Kyle Larson’s struggles in the long run made him vulnerable throughout the race on Sunday.
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Kyle Larson finishes P4 at Phoenix
For a second weekend in raw, Hendrick Motorsports had the most dominant car in the race, and yet again, William Byron took the trophy home. The No:24 Chevy Camaro ZL1 outclassed teammate Kyle Larson and rivaled Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick to score his second win of the season. He equaled his win tally from last season in just the 4th race of the season.
No:5 HMS Chevy of Kyle Larson, who started at the pole, was a contender till the white flag. He got lucky in the two restarts before the final overtime showdown and was able to hold on to the lead. Larson led a race-record 201 laps but failed to do so when it mattered the most. He failed to defend Byron, who was charging upfront to his outside, and his plan to slow him down by forcing him to the marble also wasn’t fruitful.
He was disappointed with the final restart as he had a strong car for the weekend. The 2021 Cup champion was pleased with the result, though, as he was poor in the 2022 regular season race. He added that he hopes to race for the win once again in the season finale as one among the championship 4, unlike in 2022.
“We got lucky with the one caution, and the team made a great call to take two (tires) and get us out in the lead. The restarts are just tough. I felt like I ran William up pretty high, and I expected him to lose some grip, but he did a really good job of holding it to my outside and clearing me down the back,” Kyle Larson said.
“Yeah, I’m (mad), but a great fight by the team, a great car. Way better than we were here last year. It’s a long season, but hopefully we’re in the final four when we come back here in November and can have a run similar to that, with speed, and try to execute a little bit better in the end,” Kyle Larson added.
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Kyle Larson’s temporary teammate Josh Berry had his beast ever Cup outing on Sunday
Josh Berry replaced injured Chase Elliott for the second consecutive race on Sunday, and the Xfinity championship contender had made it count with a Top 10 finish. He had a solid day and scored a P10 finish ensuring all HMS rides a place in the Top 10. It also marked the best result of Berry’s cup career. He has the cautions and overtime restarts to thank for the finish, just like his teammate who is on the podium.
“It was a really solid day for the No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevy team. We were able to improve a lot from what we had last week. We were able to stay on the lead lap basically the whole race. We had a couple of runs in there that were really good. A couple runs where we fell back a little bit, but it’s just all part of a learning experience for me. These races are so long and I need to be able to learn this car a little bit better where I can give Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) a little bit better direction on how to help me,” Josh Berry said.
“Towards the end, we found that we were a little bit on the free side of our better runs. At the end there, we were probably going to finish 15th or 16th, which I was still pretty happy with. Obviously had the cautions there and we executed a couple of really good restarts there and was able to get a top-10,” Josh Berry added.
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Justin P Joy
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