NASCAR at Phoenix: Kyle Larson, only previous champ, unfazed on return to Championship 4

Kyle Larson had minimal playoff experience when he entered the Championship 4 for the first time in 2021.

That year’s regular-season champion, a younger Larson had only reached as far as the Round of 8 once in his career. But it didn’t make a difference. He and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team executed at the right times, starting on the pole and dominating to win the title over several more experienced drivers.

Now, it’s 2023, and Larson finds himself back in the Championship 4 field — as its oldest driver.

“You can make a case for any of us to win the championship,” Larson, 31, told reporters in the Phoenix Raceway media center. “All of us have a fairly equal shot. You know, I came into the Championship 4 a couple years ago, no experience in the Round of 4 and really have only been in the Round of 8 one other time before then.

“It does not make a difference. If your team executes right, any of us can win.”

When Larson climbs into his Chevy Camaro on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. ET/NBC), he’ll be looking to keep himself in contention against Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney and William Byron. He’d love to just be the fastest car and dominate the race. But even if he isn’t leading with, say, 50 laps left, he won’t be losing hope.

This year, one can say Larson has had the fastest car in the Cup Series.

He’s led for 1,127 laps, the only driver whose “laps led” mark is in quadruple digits. Larson has won four races — second to Byron’s six wins — and boasts 17 Top 10 finishes.

But Larson knows how unpredictable the championship race can be and just seeks to keep himself in good situations. Asked about being the favorite, Larson shrugged it off and said he’d “heard that the odds are close.”

“If you look at recent speed and stuff, Blaney, to me, stands out as the best,” Larson told reporters. “So, if I was setting odds, I would probably put him as the favorite potentially, but again, not by much. We’re all pretty equal.”

Blaney, who is fourth all-time at Phoenix with an average of 9.3, has come in the Top Five in every race there since NASCAR debuted its Next Gen cars last year.

Phoenix, a mile-long oval with a “dogleg” turning into the backstretch, has also been kind to Larson outside his championship, including a fourth-place finish after winning the pole in this spring’s Phoenix race.

“This track kind of fits what we do in this car, especially,” Blaney told reporters. “Had a great shot to win this thing in the fall last year. Had a good shot to win it in the spring this year.”

Blaney, who’d already been eliminated from the playoffs, took second in last year’s championship race that Joey Logano won.

Bell, who finished 10th, is the only returning driver in the Championship 4. He said he learned a lot from that experience last year, particularly by, in his words, not being “super competitive.” He didn’t practice well and qualified 17th. But in the end, he still had a shot.

“I think most people didn’t see that,” Bell told reporters. “At the end of the race, the last green flag pit stops, me and Joey are within a second. Then I followed him down pit road for the money stop in the championship event with about 30 laps to go.

“That being said, we weren’t as competitive as we wanted to be, and we were still in the thick of it. So this year we will be even more competitive. You’re not out of it until the checkered flag comes.”