Kyle Larson Apr 16, 2023; Martinsville, Virginia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson (5) celebrates in victory lane with his children Owen Larson and Audrey Layne Larson after winning the NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Larson is at the point of his career where winning three races in a season is considered a “slump.”

After winning 10 races en route to the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship, Larson somewhat struggled in the first season with the Next Gen car. Finishing seventh in points, with three wins in 2022, Larson regrouped for 2023 and has had a great start to the season.

After nine races, Larson won at Richmond and Martinsville, while scoring a second-place finish at Las Vegas and fourth at Phoenix. Larson also has three finishes of 29th and worse, so he’s been somewhat inconsistent. But when he’s running at the finish, Larson is usually competing for the win.

During the week, Larson is at work running the High Limit Sprint Car Series. Along with his brother-in-law, four-time defending World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet, Larson started a new sprint car series that runs during the week in the hopes of giving drivers more opportunities to compete for higher purses. Larson, Alex Bowman, and Rico Abreu are some of the regulars in the series, while many in the World of Outlaws race part-time.

Larson talked to The Comeback about his Martinsville win, whether or not he spoke with Ryan Preece after their on-track incidents at Bristol, the High Limit Sprint Car Series, and what he believes is the appeal of dirt racing.

Phillip Bupp: Congrats on the win at Martinsville. You’ve been pretty open about struggling at a track like that, so how important was it to get a win at a place like Martinsville?

Kyle Larson: Yeah, I don’t know, it’s a tough track. It just doesn’t suit my driving style. It’s just a heavy braking type of track, not really a flowy momentum style track, which what I’m kind of used to with my background of dirt racing. So, it’s just taken me a long time to adapt to it. And I think, too, for my team when I was at Ganassi, and then now Hendrick to get a setup that adapts to my driving style. So, was neat to win there, and hopefully first of many.

PB: Now that you’ve won at a track like Martinsville, does that give you confidence to take that success to other tracks you may not have performed as well on compared to others?

Larson: I don’t know. I mean, I feel like the others that I don’t really do well at are Talladega and Daytona, and those are nothing like Martinsville, obviously. So, I don’t think winning at Martinsville helps anything for those tracks. But other than just confidence, whenever you’re winning, it helps confidence. So, I look forward to getting to Talladega this weekend, and hopefully avoiding some wrecks and staying up front all race long, and having a shot to win late.

PB: Now, the two-tire call was pretty massive in getting you in position to win. With the passing difficulty heightened as it is now, will there be an even bigger importance on the crew chief being on top of strategy throughout a race?

Larson: Yeah, I think it’s been that way ever since the Next Gen car was introduced, especially for the short track stuff. So, yeah, I think you’ve seen some more oddball staying out and two-tires style strategies late in the race than you used to, and I think a lot of times it’s been successful. So, yeah, I don’t know what exactly to attribute it to, but thankfully our team does study, just like every team does. I mean, they study a ton and have made the right call a handful of times now.

PB: How do you feel about the passing being a lot more difficult now?

Larson: I guess it just is what it is. I’m not an engineer or anything, so I don’t know how to fix it. But that’s what you’re dealt and it makes executing your race from start to finish that much more important.

PB: Now going back to the week before at Bristol, I know you and Ryan Preece got into it a bit. I know you said right after it happened you felt it was payback from earlier in the race, while Preece said he got loose. Have the two of you talked about it since, or have you largely moved on from it?

Larson: No, we haven’t talked. But, I mean, I don’t really know why you have to talk. So, I think we both have moved on from it and we’re fine going forward.

PB: Sticking with dirt racing, I got to say, I like what you’re doing with the High Limit Sprint Car Series… After one race, how’s that been going?

Larson: I thought it went okay for our first event. It didn’t go perfect by any means, but I think it was easy to identify areas that we need to improve on. We race in Burlington, Iowa, this coming Tuesday, so I look forward to seeing if we’ve improved on any areas and seeing if we can continue to just stand out a little bit and be different. I think all the fans and competitors so far have really enjoyed it. So, yeah, just it’s not many races, so I look forward to trying to make each and every one of them as exciting as can be.

PB: Have you already seen some of the positive effects from it, midweek races, high purses affecting the [dirt racing] community?

Larson: I mean, we’ve only had… Well, one last year, then one this year, so I don’t know. I mean, I guess, yeah, teams financially maybe, Gio Scelzi who won $50,000 on a Tuesday night. That’s something different than they probably ever had projected in prior years’ budgets. But yeah, so I don’t know. I mean, like I said, I think the competitors are all really excited about it. It gives them more opportunities to race for big money and make their season, hopefully offset the cost of racing a little bit.

PB: What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned since becoming a series promoter?

Larson: Well, I mean, thankfully, I don’t really have to get crazy involved in the day-to-day stuff. Brad Sweet [four-time defending World of Outlaws champion and Larson’s brother-in-law], he’s definitely more of that guy. But I am on a lot of phone calls with him and just going over ideas and where things are at. And there’s just, I guess the promotion side, it’s a lot of work. I don’t know how Brad really juggles it all and still competes and is the best winged sprint car racer in the country while doing everything that he does on the side. So, yeah, I think everything leading up to it, it’s tough. And then you get to race day and it’s extremely hectic. Yeah, but it is, it’s rewarding, and fun, and stressful, and all of that.

PB: Now, I think you’re going to be the best person to answer this. Dirt racing is a passion of yours. For someone reading who may have never been to a dirt track or their only knowledge of dirt racing is maybe watching NASCAR on Bristol, what’s the appeal of dirt racing, and why should they seek that out?

Larson: I think, for me, I mean, I’m just trying to put myself in a fan’s perspective. But I don’t know; I think just sprint car racing, I’m just picking out sprint car racing; I do a lot of other stuff, late models and all that, but I mean, it’s all similar.

But I don’t know, the flow of the night I think is more exciting. You have natural breaks throughout the event with qualifying and a break, and heat races and a break, and where NASCAR is just four hours of just not many breaks, loud noise, the tracks are way bigger. So, sometimes most of the tracks, hard to feel like you’re up close to the excitement. Where most of the dirt tracks are quarter-mile to three-eighths and you have some half-miles, and you feel like you’re more on top of the action, and crashes are bigger. Just the main event is 30 laps. So, I mean, if it goes green nonstop, it could be less than a 10-minute race.

And I think with human beings’ attention spans these days, I think dirt racing is more suitable for that. And too, I mean, the cars are way more crazy than NASCAR stuff. I mean, you’re talking 1,400 pounds with almost 1,000 horsepower compared to 3,500 or 3,600 pounds at 650 horsepower. So, quite a bit more exciting in the show.

PB: No doubt. I’ll get you out of here on this. We’re a quarter of a way through the season. You’re outpacing your 2022 season and you’re just slightly behind your 2021 season. Do you have the pieces in place to replicate that 2021 title season?

Larson: I mean, I would love to think so. I feel like our race cars are really good. Our team is pretty much the same as it was in 2021. We’ve got more experience on this Next Gen car. So, yeah, I mean, I think so far this year, I’ve felt like we’ve been pretty similar to what I remember being in 2021. We’ve been a top three car at all these races. Yeah, I mean, maybe in 2021 we were the best car at a lot of them, but I think we have been as well at majority of these races this year. So, it’s just harder and it’s harder to win for whatever reason these days. You have to execute perfectly. You just can’t make mistakes. Where I feel like in 2021, you could make mistakes for whatever reason and recover from them. Where now, just everybody’s so much closer on speed, it’s just hard to recover. So you got to be perfect.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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