![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265295560.jpg\")
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Kyle Larson at Phoenix<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson was taken aback that he was able to finish third in Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix. Given how they performed throughout the 312-lap race, the driver of No. 5 wasn\u2019t expecting the podium finish.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Larson\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports teammates faced some of the same struggles. William Byron salvaged a seventh-place finish, while Chase Elliott posted a 23rd-place run, and fill-in driver Anthony Alfredo posted a DNF of 33rd.<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson on HMS\u2019 Phoenix performance: \u2018It\u2019s concerning\u2019<\/p>\n
During a post-race interview with Frontstretch<\/a>, Larson was asked if he was concerned by his or his teammates\u2019 performances on Sunday.<\/p>\n The two-time and defending Cup Series champion conceded he had concerns, but added that they have always struggled at Phoenix.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s concerning, but we\u2019re always really bad here at Phoenix. At least me. William\u2019s had his moments of being pretty strong. I feel like the rest of us three have always been really bad. We just were worse today,\u201d Larson said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Between the new Chevrolet body<\/a> and the increase in horsepower at Phoenix<\/a>, Larson didn\u2019t know for certain if either of those two things led to their tough days in the desert.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the 33-year-old drew it up to their overall lack of performance at Phoenix as the reason. Despite that, Larson said because they\u2019ve been in similar situations at the 1.0-mile track, they knew how to salvage the race.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we are so bad here, I feel like we know how to fight through it and get a third-place finish like we typically do here. Performance wise, that\u2019s not where we should be running. So with that, yeah, I\u2019m proud of the team. For Phoenix, we\u2019ve got to get way, way better,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n Larson posted a third-place finish, the same result that helped him capture last year\u2019s Cup Series title in the championship race at Phoenix.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Byron posted a seventh-place result, but didn\u2019t have the pace to contend for the win. Elliott was mired back in traffic throughout the race and got collected in two crashes on his way to a 23rd-place effort.<\/p>\n Alfredo filled in for Alex Bowman, who was sidelined ahead of Sunday\u2019s race with vertigo. The fill-in driver posted a 33rd-place DNF after being collected in a crash with Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric.<\/p>\n Kyle Larson surprised by third-place Phoenix run<\/p>\n The driver of the No. 5 wasn\u2019t expecting to run third on Sunday at Phoenix. After struggling with his race car throughout the weekend, Larson was pleasantly surprised by the result.<\/p>\n \u201cA good fight by our team. We kinda struggled with our car all weekend, was able to qualify well, and then just kinda fight through today and salvage a third. Was not expecting that with how bad we were, but again, proud of the team,\u201d Larson said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Larson is amid his sixth season with Hendrick Motorsports and entered 2026 as the defending champion. Since joining HMS, the California native has won two titles and 26 Cup races.<\/p>\n After four races, Larson sits 10th in the points standings. The Cup circuit heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Sunday, where Larson has been the victor three times.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Kyle Larson at Phoenix Kyle Larson was taken aback that he was able to finish third in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-523725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}