BROOKLYN, Mich. — Kyle Larson finished fifth in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan Int’l Speedway and was satisfied with that result on a day when his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was a little off.
Larson was on a fuel-saving strategy at the end and faded from second to fifth during the closing laps.
“Early in the run, I was actually surprised with how easy it was to save fuel and kind of stay attached to the No. 77 (Carson Hocevar) and the No. 24 (William Byron),” Larson said. “I thought I was in good shape there and I was hopeful that I had a big enough gap from the group behind us that maybe we could maintain that gap; those guys would run out of fuel in front of me and we could win.
“But they were charging hard and my balance wasn’t very good. I really faded there with 12 laps or so to go, so because of the balance being bad, I could save more fuel naturally. I just kind of had to nurse it home from there.”
Larson was proud to salvage a fifth-place finish.
“We didn’t have a good No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet today, but we still got a top-five finish out of it,” said Larson, who is second in the standings, 41 points behind Byron. “I’m happy about the effort and hopefully we can have some more speed these next coming weeks and just run in the top-five more often. Days like today aren’t the most fun, but they feel really good, too. Proud of the whole team. Wish we could have gotten a win for Chevrolet today, but we’ll have to try again next year.”
• Zane Smith collected his second top-10 finish of the season at Michigan, finishing seventh in the No.38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
“There’s a lot of positive from the speed and how my car drove today, especially when we made it better. We had positive restarts and just a lot of positives,” Smith said. “I’m on two tires there trying to hold off guys that are on four. If I’m on four against four in the Cup Series that’s already hard enough, so I was trying my best at defending but ultimately we got beat there some.
“All in all, I’m proud to end up in the top 10 there with Long John Silver’s on board and everyone at FRM. I wish we could have gotten Ford a W here in their home state, but we’ll try again next year.”
• Ty Gibbs finished third in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, but felt that if fuel strategy had been different he could have contended for the victory.
“It’s just unfortunate because I believe we had the capability to go do it and we showed how fast enough to go do it,” Gibbs said. “It’s frustrating, but it’s just part of it sometimes.”
• Ross Chastain finished sixth and believed his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet had an up-and-down day with fuel strategy. He commended winner Denny Hamlin’s late-race speed.
“We saved fuel the whole second-half of the run, so we were fine there at the end and I was able to start pushing hard again. I couldn’t really make much more lap time,” Chastain said. “You’re off the gas for 20 laps and you think – oh, I’m giving up all this lap time, and you go and get a tenth back on a big track like this. I think we finished about where we should have. When the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) passed me on that last run, I was like, I don’t have that, so hats off to those guys. They’ve been impressive.
“We just haven’t been quite that good to drive up and pass those guys, but it was a solid sixth-place finish for the No. 1 Busch Light Apple Chevrolet team.”
• Alex Bowman finished 36th after he got the worst of a crash that also involved Austin Cindric and Cole Custer. Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet made hard contact with the outside wall.
Bowman on the accident that ended the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team’s day early at Michigan International Speedway:
“It just looked like the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) got into the No. 41 (Cole Custer) or he was in a bad aero spot, something like that,” Bowman explained. “The No. 41 got loose and at that point, being on the outside, when they get into you, you’re just along for the ride. Really quickly turned the car into the outside wall and it was a massive crash.
“Hate it for our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. We just have to keep digging. It’s been a really bad two months for us, but we just have to keep working hard.”
