DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: The NASCAR offseason is coming to close and Kyle Larson seems ready to get back to Cup racing.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver participated in a press conference in Victory Lane at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway on Thursday afternoon where it was announced he and Ross Chastain would each pilot two NASCAR Cup Series races this season with funding from AdventHealth.
While partaking in his first Cup at-track duties of the season, Larson was able to get an up-close view of the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE which will debut during Speedweeks 2020 next month.
The Chevrolet Camaro looks similar to the ZL1 model which has run during the past two seasons of Cup competition but the 1LE edition features a nose that is much more rounded. The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 had a far more distinctly pointed nose, a characteristic that seemed to hamper the Chevrolet teams with it came to bump-drafting on the superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
“We don’t have any track time with (the new Chevrolet) but everything I’ve heard about it at the shop, it’s better than what we had,” Larson said Thursday. “I’m sure there will be some growing pains throughout the early part of the season.
“Hopefully we don’t (have any) but I’m not going to get upset if there is because we do have a new body style and there will be things we have to learn on the fly. Everybody seems to be pretty confident about it, so that makes me excited.”
With the updated Chevrolet model, Larson is hoping for even bigger on-track results for his No. 42 Chevrolet than last season.
The Elk Grove, Calif. native snapped a career-long 75-race Cup winless streak with a crucial victory a Dover (Del.) International Speedway during the post-season Playoffs. And while the year got off to a shaky start, Larson ended his sixth year as a full-time driver sixth in the championship standings.
Keeping sharp behind the wheel during the offseason with open-wheel races in New Zealand and heading to Oklahoma next week to participate in the coveted Chili Bowl, the 27-year-old is hoping for better Cup results in 2020.
“I’m excited about getting the NASCAR season started back up,” he added. “I felt like just before the midpoint of last season we got really good – Kurt (Busch) and I both. There was probably a month straight where I felt either Kurt or I had the fastest car each week.
“We had a good run in the Playoffs and I finished sixth in points. He had some bad luck throughout his Playoffs but he had a good season overall.”
While NASCAR continues to explore a possible adjustment in the aerodynamic rules at short tracks this year, most of the aero rules will remain in place for a second consecutive season, Larson believes his team will be in a good position to pick up where they left off.
“I think with the rules not changing, it helps every team really but just from where we started the 2019 season and where we ended, I felt we made the improvement out of all the teams,” he said. “I think we’re in a good spot to start even with the new body style.
“You normally don’t know what to expect until you get out there but I’m looking forward to getting out there because all of our expectations are much higher going into this season.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
