A win that the No. 5 driver said was 'meant to be.' The special win for the Hendrick Motorsports driver comes after his stunted result at the Indy 500 in May.
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00:00Well, we are standing here in Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the Yard of Bricks.
00:04And pretty fitting that it's Kyle Larson who finds the checkered flag on this one.
00:09Not many drivers can say that they restarted at 1.23 and put on a clinic and drove through
00:13the field.
00:14How'd you do it?
00:15Yeah, no, it was just kind of worked out, you know, because we had better fuel than
00:20everybody in front of us and they were all kind of trying to stretch it to the end or
00:24whatever they were trying to do.
00:25And so their pace was kind of back down and they were all bunched up, having to lift early
00:30and I could just make late, you know, kind of bombs to the bottom and catch them off
00:33guard really.
00:34And was able to work my way, I don't know, top five or six pretty quickly doing it like
00:40that.
00:41But it was getting tougher as the pace was getting back up and I was losing grip in my
00:43tires.
00:44But yeah, you know, everything kind of worked out at the end, you know, Brad running out
00:49of fuel, me inheriting the front row, all that.
00:52So just felt like it was meant to be today.
00:56You mentioned meant to be the 30th anniversary.
00:57Obviously, Jeff Gordon was here in 94 at Indianapolis.
01:00But for you, you spent so much time in Indianapolis this season and running an Indy car.
01:06You won an Indy and a papaya car.
01:07It just was a stock car.
01:09How special is this one?
01:10No, it's special.
01:11It's very special, you know, just with everything you'll get to participate in the five hundred
01:17and then having that all kind of work out the way it worked out where I wasn't able
01:20to complete nearly 1100 miles and get to Charlotte with the weather and didn't get to run this
01:25paint scheme.
01:26So it was important to me.
01:27I think I asked, I don't know, shortly after the Coke 600 and all that, you know, if I
01:32could run that paint scheme here for the Brickyard since I didn't get the chance to and Hendrick
01:37Automotive Group.
01:38They were super, you know, OK with it.
01:40And yeah, I just think, like I said, it's just everything felt kind of meant to be for
01:45us to win today.
01:46So, yeah, it's just special.
01:48And to kiss the bricks with the team, my family, Jeff Gordon, having Rick Hendrick here just
01:53all felt great.
01:54You get to celebrate this win for three weeks.
01:57We have two weeks off of the Olympics, obviously, and then it's four races left into the playoffs.
02:00How do you lock up that regular season championship?
02:03I don't know.
02:04It's obviously tough because Redick is up there again.
02:06Chase, I'm sure Denny probably pick some cars off there at the end.
02:09So I'm sure we're all still really tight in points.
02:12But you just got to keep executing and making the most out of your days.
02:15You know, I was a goal of mine once we had our loose wheel.
02:19It was just, you know what?
02:20I didn't think I would win.
02:21So I was like, well, let's just try and get the best finish possible.
02:24And, you know, once it felt like it was within grasp, like, OK, let's try and get a little
02:29bit more aggressive here and be safe while doing it.
02:32So I think it's going to take more of that just being kind of smart, you know, managing
02:35your aggressiveness.
02:36And yeah, you know, Redick, Chase, Denny, I mean, they are so good and so consistent
02:41right now.
02:42So it's it's tough.
02:43Congratulations.
02:44Go celebrate.