Personal, professional transitions in effect, Larson right at home at Auto Club

FONTANA, Calif. — The Southern California full celebrity treatment welcomed Kyle Larson upon his Friday arrival to Auto Club Speedway.

The track brought some Hollywood glitz and glamour to its Walk of Fame, and Larson rolled up in style, chauffeured by the speedway’s 1948 Chevrolet woodie wagon. A gathering of adoring fans cheered the home-state favorite’s return to the 2-mile track, but his appearance took an odd turn when hosts opened the ceremony up for a brief Q&A.

PHOTOS: See Larson honored and more scenes from the track

“Hey, why don’t you do us all a favor and take (Kevin) Harvick out this week?” blurted out one fan, prompting a nervous smile from the guest of honor. However blunt the wording, the question of how to halt Harvick’s three-race win streak remains a front-burner issue for Larson and the rest of the field entering Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I don’t think you can slow him down. We’ve all got to get our stuff to be able to compete with him right now,” Larson said. “I don’t think we’re far off. We were definitely off at Phoenix, but in Atlanta, he’s always fast. And then Vegas he was fast, too. But I think we’re only something small away from getting to be as good as he is.”

The closing race of NASCAR Goes West marks a time of transition for the defending Auto Club winner, both personally and professionally. On the career side, Larson joins Chip Ganassi Racing and the rest of the Chevrolet campaigners in the sorting-out period for the new Camaro ZL1, now entering just its fifth race in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.

Larson noted that Toyota experienced similar growing pains last year with the racing debut of the automaker’s new Camry. He said that Team Chevy was on a similar, if not quicker pace with its progress, and Auto Club presents a unique sweet spot for Larson: Four of his five big-league victories have come on 2-mile circuits (three at Michigan, one in California).

“There’s still a lot of opportunity to learn about these cars and what their different characteristics are, really for the bodies,” Larson said. “The chassis, suspension and all that stuff is basically the same. I feel like we’re off to a good start with it.”

On the personal side, Larson and his fiancée, Katelyn Sweet, are expecting their second child in May. The couple already have hands full with their energetic 3-year-old son, Owen, who added his own handprints in the wet cement for Larson’s Walk of Fame marker.

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The family wrapped up an extended stay in the Phoenix area after last weekend’s race, taking some time off for golf and visiting with friends. But after the California weekend, it’s back to North Carolina for a two-day test next week at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s road course and the continuing preparation for baby No. 2’s arrival.

“Everything’s been good. I think with the first one, you think about it every day and it goes super-slow, the nine months,” Larson says. “With this one, we haven’t found out gender, haven’t done any parties or anything like that. This one’s gone by a lot faster, so far the pregnancy has, so it’s creeping up on us. It’s only a couple months away, really.

“So we’ve got to get to work on rooms and clothes — but we don’t know the gender yet, so we can’t really do any of that. But it’s going to creep up on us.”