“Got to get a lot better”: Kyle Larson makes his feelings known after a late charge to victory lane in the Chili Bowl prelim 

NASCAR driver Kyle Larson took the victory earlier this week at the preliminary race during the opening night of the Chilli Bowl Nationals. Larson, driving the car #1K, took the victory after overtaking Shane Golobic during the final restart of the race.

Qualifying in fourth, Larson held off Golobic in the final moments of the qualifying night at the Tulsa Expo Raceway, scoring the win by 0.278 seconds. The Hendrick Motorsports driver spoke after securing the victory about how he felt how the race went (via FloRacing):

"We found a way, which was nice, but we still got to get a lot better for Saturday."

Larson gave a breakdown of the race, describing how he felt the 30 laps went along with mentioning that the work required would get done by car owner and crew chief, Paul Silva (via Sports Illustrated):

"It wasn’t a pretty 30 laps, just things didn’t work out early, and kind of had to methodically work my way back forward, and just was able to make it happen really. I didn’t feel that good, we still have a lot of work to do to compete on Saturday but I’m confident Paul [Silva] will figure it out like he always does.”

Speaking about his late push during the restart, Larson explained (via Sports Illustrated):

“I wanted to be kind of smart there on the last restart, although it probably didn’t look like it. You know, you don’t want to give up a locked-in spot, but you also want to win, because you can’t win a Chili Bowl from third row on back.”

Kyle Larson's win earlier this week confirms his spot for the Chili Bowl Nationals Championship Race. This will be Larson's attempt to secure a third Golden Driller trophy after he achieved wins at the 2020 and 2021 championships.

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Kyle Larson shouts out to sponsor after Chili Bowl victory

After Kyle Larson's win at the qualifying night earlier this week, the driver took to social media to give a shout-out to his sponsor, Prime and it's product. The #1K shared an image from after the race featuring him and the Prime Ice flavour.

The 2021 Cup Series Championship winner posted the photo on his stories earlier today, with the caption:

"Winners drink Prime Ice"

Kyle Larson's instagram story after winning Opinion Auto Center Qualifying Night - Image via Instagram/@kylelarsonracin

Apart from his win this week, Larson also won at the Tulsa Expo Raceway earlier this month at the Tulsa Shootout in the Winged Outlaw and Winged A-Class categories.

Kyle Larson finished his NASCAR 2024 Cup Series season sixth in the standings. He secured six wins, including at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Sonoma Raceway. He also had fifteen Top 5s and eighteen Top 10s.