Kyle Larson does little to alleviate Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s concerns about Iowa this weekend

Kyle Larson just shared his thoughts about Iowa Speedway with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and both are concerned about the partially repaved track. On the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt asked Larson about his expectations for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa on Sunday.

“You’re going to have to be on the new pavement,” Larson said. “When we tested there, it was so slick. It took probably four hours for us to make comfortable laps. But then once the grip came in, it was normal. …But with only three cars there, there was lots of marbles just outside the groove, so if you missed it by an inch you would lose a second on your lap time.

“I’m curious to see if it’ll be like that still if we’ll have a bunch of marbles just outside the groove. I think if you do, I think that lends itself to mistakes and then you hopefully that will help with passing. I’m trying to be positive as well, but we’ll see. I think it’s got progressive baking too, so that should help. But I don’t really know until I get there.”

This will be the first time the Cup Series teams will compete at Iowa Speedway. NASCAR owns the track, but a NASCAR race hasn’t taken place there since 2019. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said the organization didn’t have time to repave the entire track but needed to address some rough areas.”

Kyle Larson looking to win 27th career Cup Series race at Iowa

The good thing for Larson is he comes into Sunday’s race with a lot of momentum after winning last week’s race at Sonoma. It’s the second time Larson has won at Sonoma, and he now has 26 career Cup Series wins. After the race, Larson talked about earning the win after being in eighth place with 29 laps remaining.

“I didn’t know what we were doing as far as strategy,” Larson said. “I was just out there banging laps away. I don’t know, we study all the strategy, but it’s like doing homework. I don’t really know what I’m looking at.

“Yeah, I was like, well, man, these guys are going to have to pit another time maybe. Then we said we had to go race and pass these guys, I got a bit nervous. I knew I’d be quick from the get-go go but I thought once the tires would come up to temp it would even off too much. Thankful that we had enough grip.”