Kyle Larson was the hunter at the end of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, tracking down Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr. on his way to a victory at Sonoma Raceway.
The No. 5 had fresher tires than both the No. 17 and the No. 19, as Larson’s strategy worked wonders, delivering him what he needed to win the race. On the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download, following the victory, Dale Earnhardt Jr. pressed Larson on whether he’d rather be on offense or defense in the closing laps.
“I appreciate you giving us a minute of your time. I know you’ve got a busy schedule. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about this past weekend,” Earnhardt Jr. began. “You were on the offense, late in the race, with tires. What’s your preference in those moments? Would you rather be on the defense? I’m the kind of guy that’s like, give me the tires. Let me try to do my best to figure this out. Hate being out there on used tires, when somebody else has new tires, running me down.”
Evidently, Larson would love every race to be in the same vein of Sonoma, where he’s the one with the fresher tires hunting down his prey, instead of having to worry about someone behind him with better Goodyears.
“Yeah, I agree. I think, at least in my past history, I feel like I do better when I’m on offense,” Larson responded. “I feel like the times that I’m on defense, it’s just I don’t know, I think you end up abusing your tires even more trying to hold people off, and then it just compounds you know, the disadvantage that you have, and makes it worse. I feel like there’s a couple of guys out in the field that are good, really good, at being out there on defense, on old tires, but I’m not one of those. So yeah, give me new tires, and let me see what I can do.
“Obviously, there’s times where you need the track position, and you have to do that, but yeah, I was happy to be you know, it seemed like, in a pretty high advantage too, on my tires, as long as we stayed out. So I thought that all worked out really well.”
Either way, Kyle Larson is going to have a tremendous shot at winning, as he’s one of the best drivers in the sport, regardless of whether he’s playing offense or defense. With three wins in the bank already, the No. 5 could continue racking up the victories throughout the summer, and head into the playoffs on fire this season.
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