Kyle Larson Takes Xfinity Route to Prepare for COTA Cup Series Race

Being the longest and most tricky road course on the route to the Cup Series championship, COTA deserves special attention from drivers. Every single one of them would love getting to practice as much as possible before the green flag waves in Austin, but few would have the same advantage as Kyle Larson in that regard.

The Hendrick Motorsports star will pilot his team’s #17 Chevrolet Camaro in Saturday’s Xfinity race before kicking off the engines on Sunday for the main Cup Series race.  The 48 extra laps that Larson will get to drive around the circuit by this added participation could have made all the difference when the sun sets at the end of the weekend.

“I expect it to help. It is not going to hurt,” Larson told hendrickmotorsports.com. “When I’ve run COTA in the past, the laps are so long there, and with practice time, you only get about 6, 7, 8 laps. I never feel ready for qualifying or the race there.” Continuing, he hoped that practicing and qualifying for Xfinity (On Friday) would prepare him for the Cup rituals on Saturday.

Larson currently has 14 victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He has raced in COTA once in each of the last three years and holds an average finish rate of 15.0. Squeezing in that extra bit of track time could potentially help him figure things out better and bring home a notable finish.

Larson could give the #17 Camaro its first win with the help of veteran crew chief

Larson’s effort on Saturday will be powered by the expertise of Greg Ives. Ives won the 2014 Xfinity Championship with Chase Elliott behind the wheel and finished runner-up last year in COTA with William Byron. The #17 Camaro will run hot for 10 races this season and Larson is set to drive in two of them.

Both Larson and Ives will head to the upcoming venue with the goal of victory on their minds. “I can’t believe we have gone this long without a win in that car because it is always upfront battling for the win,” Larson said. “I know we will be solid and I know we will have a good opportunity. I just need to execute better than I have in the 17.”

Since finding its name in the Xfinity leaderboard again, Hendrick Motorsports has 6 top-fives and 7 top-tens in 11 starts. Should the driver and crew chief bring their best selves to the track, they could already be winners heading to Sunday’s race.