"I got really excited": Kyle Larson shares how his super-sub opportunity with JRM came together

Kyle Larson opened up about his process of easing into the #88 JRM team after being asked to fill in for an injured Connor Zilisch. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was announced as the substitute driver for Zilisch for the Xfinity race at Texas Motor Speedway, which he ended up winning.

Following the race, the #5 driver was asked about his approach when he was contacted to fill in for Zilisch. The journalist questioned Larson about the information he received from the team before the race on Saturday.

Larson shared that the team reached out to him on Wednesday as he received a text from Zilisch's crew chief, Mardy Lindley. The 2021 Cup champion claimed that he hadn't texted Lindley in years, so getting that text on Wednesday made him feel that Zilisch might not be able to make the race.

"Gave him a call and and got to talk to LW Miller as well. And, yeah, just they asked if I could be available for it, which, I was able to. I love running Xfinity cars, so I got really excited when I got the call from them. And Texas is a track that suits me well, a mile and a half track. So knowing that I was going to get to go to a track that I was really comfortable at, I was excited about that," Larson mentioned, via Cup Scene.

The #5 driver revealed that he has known Mardy Lindley for his entire stock car career. In fact, during his days with Rev Racing and Brian Ortiz, Kyle Larson claimed that he spoke to Lindley more than his crew chief.

Larson deemed Lindley 'a cool guy', one for whom he hadn't driven a car, where Lindley was the only crew chief. Because of this, Kyle Larson said that he was 'really excited' to finally get to race and win with him.

Kyle Larson shares his thoughts on the Xfinity Series race at Texas

Following his win on Saturday, Kyle Larson opened up about his thoughts on what he deemed a race with 'a lot of survival.' He mentioned that he dodged some wrecks and had to be careful with the balance 'quite a bit.'

Despite all of this, Larson claimed that the race was fun as he described:

"I felt like my car -- if I could ever get to the lead, I could stretch out. But I just couldn't get by Justin [Allgaier]. He was doing a good job of just running where I needed to be."

Kyle Larson expressed his thankfulness to JR Motorsports for giving him the opportunity to run in the race. He further mentioned how he wished Connor Zilisch were in the car.

Having said that, Larson claimed it 'means a lot' that JRM and the #88 team thought of him to replace their main driver.