CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Larson’s luck at the Bank of America ROVAL 400 hasn’t been the greatest.
Last year, the Round of 12 cutoff race brought a swift end to Larson’s playoff hopes as he was eliminated after finishing 35th and unable to advance to the Round of 8.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver did pull off a win at the 2.25-mile road course during his championship season in 2021, but other than that, his best finish has been 13th in 2019.
On Saturday, Larson once again felt as if his misfortune had returned when he crashed in practice at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon, resulting in major damage to his No. 5 Chevrolet.
“I got loose entering turn eight and just overcorrected and plugged the right front into the wall,” Larson explained. “I wasn’t the fastest in practice, so I’ve been trying to push to get a little bit better and made a mistake.”
He will be forced to move to a backup car for Sunday’s race, meaning he’ll start at the tail end of the pack for the 109-lap contest. The crew will likely be working into the night to prepare the backup car.
While unfortunate, Larson admitted that it makes the team’s strategy more straightforward on Sunday.
“I think it’ll be really hard to pass, so we won’t be able to get stage points and then, at least, we’ll hopefully inch out way forward and be towards the front come stage three,” Larson said. “There could be some cautions that could happen in the middle of a stage that could shake things up, and we may be able to get stage points, but just really don’t know until the race plays out.”
The No. 5 driver is conscious of the blunders he’s made at the ROVAL in the past and hopes to clean up his act come the green flag on Sunday. Though it’s proved to be a difficult race track for Larson to conquer, he hasn’t lost faith in the abilities of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team.
“We’ve overcome a lot this year alone, so just add something else to overcome,” Larson said. “I know that we have a team capable of getting through it and advancing. Obviously, you just never want to put yourself and your team in a tough situation. But when you are, you’ve just got to dig down and execute the rest of the way.”
He is 15 points above the cutline heading into the Bank of America ROVAL 400.