"I felt like I drove from the back to the top" - Kyle Larson overcomes pit road errors to finish P9 in NASCAR Texas race

Kyle Larson's day out at the Texas Motor Speedway in the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 was filled with attrition as the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion made his way through the field to finish in the top 10. After dominating the 1.5-mile-long track last year, the 30-year-old was seen fighting tire issues and pit-stop errors as he made his title bid for 2022.

After clinching victory in the first stage of the 500-mile-long race after a hard fight with Denny Hamlin, Larson dropped to the back of the field as the #5 pit crew at Hendrick Motorsports seemed to have a poor day on pit road. This saw the #5 hendrickcars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver lose multiple places in the pits on numerous occasions.

Kyle Larson also appreciated the car he had underneath him. With the speed in the car, the Elk Grove, California native thought he could challenge much higher up the order and said:

“You try to shake it off the best that you can and go out there and put together some good runs. We were able to overcome all the spots that we would lose on pit road. I felt like I drove from the back to the top five or six, almost every run. Really, really good car. Proud of the effort there at the shop, the piece that we brought here to Texas.”

With the race plagued by tire failures across the field, Kyle Larson and a handful of other drivers were lucky that their tires did not let go at the wrong time. Multiple drivers such as Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Christopher Bell were victims of tire failures, rendering their progress null and void in the race.

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Kyle Larson on where he and the #5 team should have been after NASCAR 2022 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500

Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson came into last weekend's first Round of 12 race sitting high above the cutoff line for the upcoming Round of 8 and felt he and the team could not maximize their day at Texas Motor Speedway. Larson spoke about where he was on the cutoff list before and after the race and said:

“It’s good we were above the cut, but yeah, we’re plus 16. I feel like we could have been plus 34 or something at least. Bummer there. Potentially could have won the race, I think. We had the best car. The weather delay really hurt, too. I think we were by far the best when the track was hot. When it got cooler out, I got loose, everybody seemed to get faster.”

Watch Kyle Larson take on Talladega Superspeedway next weekend for the second Round of 12 race this season.