HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson interrupted the question of how he balances when to be aggressive on the track and when not to be.
“I haven’t,” the former Cup champion said.
Larson, who seeks his third Championship 4 appearance in the last four years, continued.
“I think part of what’s good about me is that I am aggressive and part of what is bad about me is I am aggressive,” he said Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I would love to harness that a little bit without giving up the good side of it.”
How aggressive to be is always a question for a driver but has become more of an issue in the Next Gen era and heading into Sunday’s Round of 8 Cup playoff race (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC).
Tyler Reddick, who starts on the pole at Homestead, is outside a transfer spot after an aggressive move last weekend at Las Vegas. He went three-wide but made contact with Chase Elliott that damaged both cars. Ryan Blaney also was collected in the incident.
That put all three of those drivers below the cutline. Elliott and Blaney say they are in a must-win situation to advance to the title race.
Reddick admits the move at Las Vegas was too aggressive for that point in the race.
“I think you have to take some risks for sure,” he said. “But there’s a line. In my case, yeah Vegas that was a situation … I learned something from it. Maybe four out of 10 times that move works out.”
It’s easy to understand Reddick’s motives at Las Vegas. The regular season champion had one of the best cars. He was trying to get back to the front after differing pit strategies dropped him from the front to about 10th to begin the second stage.
Denny Hamlin, co-owner of Reddick’s 23XI Racing car, said he talked to Reddick this week about his aggression.
“His aggressiveness is what makes him so fast,” Hamlin said. “But sometimes, it doesn’t get you to the finish. But there’s a fine line, right? If you start trying to pull back and change the way you’ve always done things, sometimes, you can doubt too much. And certainly, in our situations, you have to make split-second decisions, you don’t have time to (pause), you have to trust your instincts and live with the outcome.”
Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin also will start in the first two rows.
The sport has seen an increase in the level of aggression with the Next Gen car. The car was designed to narrow the gap between cars. With so many running similar lap times, passing can be difficult. That forces drivers to do more to make moves and gain positions. That can lead to incidents.
“It’s about inches, it’s about passing two to three cars per run,” William Byron said of racing in the Next Gen era. “If you have a bad pit stop, if you strategy does not go your way, where somebody flips the strategy and all of a sudden you’re 15th to 20th, it’s hard to have a good finish consistently.”
Joey Logano’s win last week at Las Vegas moved him into the title race for a record sixth time. Christopher Bell (42 points above the cutline), Larson (+35) and Byron (+27) are in a transfer spot with two races left in the round.
While Bell would seem to be in a comfortable position, he notes that could change quickly.
Christopher Bell: “It was just emotion and disappointment and, yeah, just passion.”
“We’re planning on there being three winners and the three of us – William, Kyle and myself – are racing for that last points spot,” Bell said. “There’s a good chance William, Kyle or myself could win this weekend and it could change. But plus 42 (points) sounds great until you realize every time someone wins, that cutline shrinks more, more and more, or that gap to the cutline. You’re never safe and it’s going to be a battle.”
That creates the tension for drivers of how aggressive to be during a race.
“Track position is harder than it’s ever been, so it’s really hard for the fast cars to show they’re fast until they get there,” Hamlin said. “And sometimes, they never get there. So, the field gets mixed up through ill-timed cautions, things like that.
“Once you get buried, I remember last week at Vegas, I was running 15th at the time and there’s Ty (Gibbs) and (Kyle Larson) racing for the lucky dog and they couldn’t go anywhere. It was log-jammed. I think that really puts more of an emphasis on execution of the race and making sure you don’t make any mistakes to lose track position now more today than ever.”
That’s what Larson continues to work on with his aggressiveness on the track.
“It’s probably been the one thing I’ve tried to focus on the most, Larson said. “Like I have a lot of speed, but I do crash a lot. Trying to figure out how to balance the aggression without giving up that aggression, too. It’s tough. I feel like I’ve gotten better over the years, but there’s still always room to improve.”
