“Who wouldn't want to drive HMS Cup car” - Kyle Larson “not surprised” by Kevin Harvick hopping in No. 5 for NASCAR All-Star practice

Kyle Larson will not participate in the practice session of the All-Star Race at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, as he will be busy in the Indianapolis 500 on the All-Star weekend.

With All-Star weekend’s track activity clashing with Indy 500 practice on the same day on Friday (May 17), Larson decided to skip North Wilkesboro track sessions. In the absence of Larson, 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick came out of retirement to pilot Hendrick Motorsports’ #5 Chevrolet during All-Star practice and qualifying.

After the recently concluded Dover race, Kyle Larson said that he was not surprised when Kevin Harvick agreed to practice for him at the All-Star practice. However, he's excited to have Harvick on the #5 HMS Chevrolet team.

In an interview with FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass, Larson said:

“I wasn’t surprised that he said yes or whatever just because who wouldn’t want to say they got to drive a Hendrick Motorsports Cup car? So no I wasn’t surprised, but just happy.

"I know there’s a lot of kinda hoops probably to jump through kind of on everybody’s part. I’m excited to have him be a part of our team for a practice session, and get to kind of see how we work a little bit and hopefully work with Cliff to get our car even better.”

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be the fifth driver in NASCAR history to race in the Indy 500.

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Kyle Larson missed out on the opportunity to win the Dover race

The #5 HMS Chevrolet driver fell short of winning his second race of the season at the Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday.

He had good speed in the second half of the race but failed to generate enough speed to pass Denny Hamlin at the end of the 400-mile race, as he ended one spot short of Hamlin.

Expressing his disappointment in missing out on the win at Dover, Kyle Larson said (via FOX Sports):

“A great day for our HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Started 21st, drove up to 6th in the first stage or 5th, and then got a stage win, another stage win, so that was good. Good points today, but we would have loved to get a win.

"Always fast here at Dover. Just need to be a little bit better on the restarts. I've lost a lot of races on restarts here. So just keep trying to get better.”

Catch Kyle Larson in action for this weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway on May 5.