Kyle Larson on Chevrolet's performance relative to newer competitors post Las Vegas Cup victory - "I felt we were going to be good again"

Kyle Larson took a dominant victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 3, securing his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season and consolidating his playoff spot.

The Pennzoil 400 at the 1.5-mile oval in Las Vegas marked the third round of the season, following NASCAR's earlier visits to superspeedway ovals. This created plenty of speculation surrounding the pecking order among the three manufacturers, with Ford and Toyota having introduced new bodies.

Heading into the event, Kyle Larson believed he had a shot at winning the race, given his stellar record at the track. However, he wasn't sure he would sweep both stages and take a dominant win, due to the unknowns presented by rival manufacturers.

Speaking at the press conference post-race, Larson spoke about how Chevy keeping its car unchanged has provided his team with a stable platform to build on its existing knowledge. He said (via Fox Sports):

"I think, as every team, we've progressively gotten our stuff better, but we had a good base starting spot in 2022. I assume that we're going to be better and better every time we come back to these places. When we won here in the fall, you come back here again in the spring, you know you're going to have a shot, at least you hope that."

On the changes made by rival manufacturers, Larson said:

"This one was maybe a little bit different because of the Fords and Toyotas with their new cars and off-season, who got their stuff better. But I felt like we were going to be good again. Did I think we would win both stages in the race? I don't know, but I felt like we would have a shot."

The top 10 finishers in Las Vegas comprised three Chevy drivers, four Toyota drivers and three Ford drivers, indicating a close field.

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Kyle Larson believes the #5 HMS team is capable of repeating his 2021 season

The #5 Hendrick Motorsports driver kicked off his 2021 campaign with his first win in Las Vegas. He kept racking up victories taking his 10th win in the season finale at Phoenix, winning his maiden title.

After fetching his first win of his 2024 campaign on the same track, Kyle Larson expressed confidence in his team to repeat their 2021 campaign. He said at the press conference (via Speedway Digest):

"I don't know. I mean, Next Gen racing is so much different than 2021. Who knows. Yes, I think we have the potential within our team to do that I think it will be much harder. When we won here in 2021, we killed them at the end. This, we had to fight really hard for it."

Kyle Larson's crew chief Cliff Daniels mentioned that the field is much tighter in the next-gen era, making it tougher to win races. However, Larson believes the team is capable of repeating his 10-win season.