Last season was filled with career highs for Kyle Larson, so the driver has high hopes heading into the 2018 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series season.
Over the past few months, Larson has had engine trouble happen at the worst possible time. Back in October at Kansas Motor Speedway and last week at the Chili Bowl Nationals. The Kansas incident even eliminated him from contention for a championship.
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Before the driver was eliminated from the playoffs last year, many believed he was a serious contender for a title. With four wins, three poles, 15 top-5 finishes and 20 top-10's, it was definitely a season to be proud of. But the young driver is ready to put 2017 behind him and move onto 2018, according to racer.com.
"It's (put) to bed, there's nothing you can do about it," Larson said in an interview with RACER. "No, [Kansas] doesn't haunt me because even if I didn't blow up, I didn't win Homestead.
If I had won Homestead maybe it would have hurt a little more, but I didn't win," He added. "I feel like I do a good job at getting over things."
Larson is ready to start the new season at Daytona International Speedway with a clean slate. With no expectations for 2018, Larson is allowing for things to happen as they may and form expectations along the way.
"Last year I felt like we exceeded my expectations from the off-season," Larson said.
"It's hard for me to really set any expectations until we get a couple races into the season, where you get a better idea of how your car is," Larson said. "Right now, I'd say knowing if my cars are as good as they were last year, if we could go out there and win at least four races again, that'd be great."
Larson and Chip Ganassi Racing have what it takes to compete at a high level and there's no reason they shouldn't pick up right where they left off last season.
"I, for sure, feel like we have all the pieces to go out there and win a championship; we almost did it last year," Larson said. "My race team is pretty much the same, or road crew-wise is the same, and I feel like we've hired on some more people in the shop that make our organization even better."
"I feel like hopefully we can have a shot again," Larson added. "But you never know until you get in the season."
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