“A Lot of Room for Improvement”: Kyle Larson Downplays Himself Despite 2023 Milestone

It’d be pretty hard to believe, but even someone as talented and as accomplished as Kyle Larson can have self-doubts. Ahead of the upcoming race in Martinsville, Larson, who won at the racetrack last year, expressed his concerns and doubts about how the short track has been for him in the past and where he currently stands on it.

“I still have a lot of room for improvement there to be a consistent contender. It’s still not a comfortable track for me. I still don’t really feel I can run consistent, comfortable laps with a rhythm,” Larson said as per Speedway Digest.

Larson admitted that even though he won at Martinsville in 2023, it’s “still not a good track,” for him. “I don’t go there and dominate like I have at a lot of other race tracks. But we happened to win there last year, so that was really neat and something I’ll never forget,” he explained.

“It was something that I never thought I would do.”

In fact, after his win last year, Larson admitted that he hated Martinsville before he tasted the sweet smell of success of the victory lane, that he wished a lot of bad things for the short track that had been so cruel to him in the past.

But this year, he’s entering as a past winner of Martinsville. And more importantly, the upcoming Martinsville race is going to be a special one for HMS.

Kyle Larson’s crew chief looking forward to important Martinsville race

Along the same lines as Larson’s comments about there being a lot of room for him to improve at Martinsville, his crew chief Cliff Daniels also shared a similar idea. “We’re refining our approach and hashing out all the stuff that we need to for this weekend,” he said.

Having said that, Daniels admitted that this particular Martinsville race will be a special one for all of Hendrick Motorsports considering it’s their 40th anniversary and the significance the short track holds in their history.

“That’s going to add a whole other level of excitement to the chemistry and the atmosphere that is Hendrick Motorsports that we have all come to know and love,” he added.

So it’ll be interesting to see how Larson and Daniels combine on Sunday, because if they’re able to replicate last year’s success on the short track, they’d not only make the day even more special for Mr. H’s team, but it’d also give Larson more confidence about his mostly sour relationship with Martinsville.