Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Kyle Larson Interview after his win at Kansas | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Fresh off a dominant win at Kansas, Kyle Larson joins Kevin Harvick for this week’s Victory Lap to break down his incredible performance and share what made the difference on race day. Kyle shares stories about the intensity of the race, including a hilarious moment when Clint Bowyer accidentally called him 'Kyle Busch' during a live interview. Plus, Larson gives insight into his preparation for the Indianapolis 500 and what he's expecting from the biggest race of his career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I wasn't surprised because it's Clint. Who knows where his head is at at all times. I was laughing in my helmet when he was stumbling his way through that whole thing. He'd never even cleaned it up. After he messed up, call me Kyle Bush. How about you, Kyle Busch? Kyle Larson. All right, Kyle.

Well, you smashed him this weekend. That had to feel pretty good. You know, we've seen you do this before with the first two stages or something happened or had to feel good to put that domination from qualifying all the way to end together with the pit crew being flawless and everything going your way. Yeah, no, it was definitely a solid day, solid weekend, really up and down.

You know, like you said, practice went well, got the pole, and then, yeah, my car balance stayed with me, you know, the whole race well enough to, you know, win both stages and then have some things kind of work out there in the third stage to get the win. So pretty uneventive.

foolish style race for us and that's usually what you like and it's usually successful and it's that way. So at the end there, and we saw this at the end of the second stage, would the tires just fall off or are you slowing down? Because my guy in the booth was absolutely doing cartwheels trying to figure out what was going on. Well, I think he was still trying to watch Kyle Bush, maybe. I don't know, but no, he or the first two stages, yes, I was I was kind of struggling at the end. just with grip and all that. And I think, I mean, you've experienced an action car and I feel like

it just, when you lead races, especially a mile and a half, so just naturally wears your tires out without even trying. So, yeah, in the third stage, I try to take it much easier throughout the run with it being a longer run, but I still got, you know, to the end.

And not that my balance really faded, but my car was shaking really bad. So I just, I wasn't sure if I was getting ready to blow a tire or what. So I just tried to slow down and take it easier and not load the tires as hard. And I don't know. I don't know if there's just the rubber buildup inside the wheels or if I actually, you know, did have a tire getting low. But it sounds like others were complaining about, you know, their car is shaking as well. So I'm guessing it was

maybe just a rubber buildup thing. But yeah, I was pretty nervous at the end of it. So you started about, you started off this day with an absolute. disastrous interview as you as you mentioned there. Have you ever, could you have ever imagined an interview being that bad? Because my man, Clint Boyer, called you Kyle Bush to start the race. I mean, did that send you in an off direction? Or were you immediately trying to think, all right, how am I going to embarrass him when I respond to this? Yeah. I mean, I wasn't surprised because it's Clint, right? And who knows where his head is at at all times? So, yeah, I was laughing in my helmet when he was stumbling his way through that whole thing.

Like, he'd never even cleaned it up after he messed up, call me Kyle Bush. So I was just waiting for him to just finish whatever he was going to say. So, no, it was funny. And like he said, you know, that's what he gets for interviewing friends. It is, I would imagine, like, even for you, it's got to be hard to interview people that you've, you know, been around for a long time. but it's Clint Boyer, so it's fun to bust on him when you can. It's to be expected. All right, so tell me what does this week look like for you?

This week, so I'm getting lunch now, but I'm going to head over to the track here soon, and we have like an engineering kind of pre, I think, meeting for tomorrow's practice stuff. And then I'll race at Kokomo Speedway tonight with high limits. And then, yeah, then we get on track tomorrow. I think it's from noon to sixth. I think there's a couple hours built in there where Knawn is going to have his rookie refresher thing. You know, in case he has to hop in my car for the race. But then, yeah, Tuesday through Thursday is like race practice from 12 to 6.

And then Friday, I think, is also 12 to 6. But it should be fast Friday. We turn the boost up and get ready for qualifying. qualify Saturday and Sunday, depending on, you know, kind of where you are in the order. And then, yeah, then I'll go to North Wilkesboro, run the All-Star Race, come back. I think we have a practice on Monday, maybe, a quick practice Monday. And then I'm going to New York for some media stuff, I think, on Tuesday. And then, yeah, I think we're back on track, maybe Thursday or Friday next week.

So, yeah, it's pretty simple days, you know, pretty, I don't know, normal schedule. Yeah. Well, when you, now that you've done it, what's the one thing from last year to this year that you're going to pay attention to, that you know the differences in between the cars, is it something that you do different with travel? How are you handling it different than what you did last year? Yeah, last year I thought everything went well. I thought, you know, we had a big car balance. I thought, you know, Hendrick Motorsports and everybody involved there handled the logistics very well. For me, behind the wheel, you know, I didn't feel quite as comfortable at the open test a couple weeks ago as I did in May of last year. So I'm hopeful that our balance is in a better spot to start, you know, these couple weeks. But if not, then yeah, I think you're going to be searching to try and get that comfortable balance to where you can, you know, just have confidence, really. So, yeah, and if we do get to that point, then I think, you know, last year I felt like I could have stood a freer balance to help myself in the race. So that's what I would be probably searching for this time around. But overall, I felt like we were prepared really well last year.

So I don't think there's too much to do different this year. Well, good. Well, we're all intrigued in how it's going to go. We wish you the best of luck as you go through these next couple of weekends and try to not only win an all-star race, a Coke 600, an Indy 500, but everything in between. And we'll be watching tonight at the high limits race. So good luck. Yeah, thanks a lot.