Kyle Larson explains struggles in Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix

Kyle Larson was hoping to make it back-to-back wins at Phoenix last weekend, following his win at Las Vegas the week prior, but it wasn’t to be.

The Hendrick Motorsports star didn’t have the best afternoon during the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix, and he jumped on the latest episode of The Dale Jr Download to elaborate on how it all went down.

“Honestly, I didn’t feel like horrible with my balance, but it was just really hard to pass,” Larson stated. “We had a couple issues on pit road. Left rear wheel nut didn’t get all the way tight, so I had to come back down pit road.

“After we gained like, four spots on that that stop. And then again later in the race, something happened on the right rear. So it was just a rough day.”

Regardless, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion wasn’t in a bad mood regarding his performance in the desert. He was still able to bring his car home P14, which he believed was one of the best possible outcomes, considering how his day went overall.

“Honestly I feel like for us to finish P14 was maximizing as much as we could,” Larson stated. “So you know, proud of the team and myself for not freaking out and crashing or something, because that’s something I probably would have done last year.

“So you know, we’ll take it, move on, learn from it and try and do better next time.”

Moving forward, Larson has some tracks that’s he’s faired well on in the past on the schedule, starting with Bristol Motor Speedway on St. Patrick’s Day. COTA, which comes up the following weekend, hasn’t been too kind to him, but Richmond and Martinsville sound like they could be places where Larson wins.

After coming close to his second NASCAR Cup Series title last season, it’s evident Larson is freshly motivated to win another championship. He’s been on record stating he wants to be the next in a long line of multi-time championship winners for Hendrick Motorsports, and that starts with No. 2.

Moreover, Larson has proven to be able to dominate a weekend from start to finish at times, which is what he did at Las Vegas. That’s what made his performance at Phoenix a little puzzling, but he’ll still be considered a favorite to win week-in and week-out, wherever NASCAR is.

Time will tell how Kyle Larson does at Bristol, but he’ll be looking to finish better than P14, after being slightly disappointed with the finish from Phoenix last weekend.