Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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A couple years ago it seemed he had to beg and plead, and resort to social media to get his Nascar controller to let him race on dirt. Now he seems to show up anywhere anytime without the drama. Was that all a publicity stunt or what has happened to develop this apparent freedom to race dirt?

Just watched him shove Shaffer over the edge of Lernerville. Is Larson a dirty driver with a baby face nobody wants to expose?

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

The only time I can remember him having to beg and plead was the 2017 Nationals. That was only because it was cutting it close with his NASCAR schedule. As far as I can see, he is free to do whatever he wants, whenever, as long as it doesn't interfere with his NASCAR schedule.

Larson didn't "shove" Shaffer over the backstretch, they didn't even make contact. Kyle slid up and ran his line and there was little room for Shaffer. If you watch the video you can see Kyle's hands stay straight off 2, he didn't jab them right. That's 2 guys racing hard for position.

Kyle is without a doubt in my mind NOT a dirty driver. He races hard and gives 110% every time he races. When you race hard you're eventually going to get into someone or something.

In past articles, Kyle has stated that he gets to run like 20 races during the NASCAR season, and they're are agreement about when the race is in relation to when a NASCAR race weekend start, eg, he can race Thurs. night if practice rounds don't start until Friday. Don't quote me excactly, but you can google for past interviews. The Knoxville things was just like stated above, Sat. nights feature was well into the NASCAR weekend, but with Kyle having such a good starting spot in the feature, everyone made a push to let him race. He backed it up by winning in his day job ride on Sunday. It seems after that, the Nationals are an excemption to the rule. If I remember correctly, the year before, the Nationals fell on a off weekend, so Kyle was able to run the whole thing with no problem. There is also the rumor that after his 4 Crown crash, they don't want him running non-wing sprinters either. 

Kyle has always been able to run a certain amount of sprint car races per his contract----somewhere in the 20's if I'm not mistaken.  As pointed out already, the only begging he had to do was the Nationals a couple of years back because he was not permitted to run sprint cars if he had to travel far from a Nascar track on Nascar race weekends.  Last year, Chip gave him his blessing----and I'm assuming this year as well. ????  

It also helps to have Chip Ganassi as his NASCAR car owner.  On the surface Chip seems like a big-business guy who might not have any interest in dirt racing, but he's from the Pittsburgh area and has been a sponsor for Ed Lynch, Jr. in the past.  He was at Lernerville last night, also.  I'm sure his support of Kyle's extra curricular dirt racing has been key in keeping Larson with his NASCAR team.

Signature here.

Idk if anything has changed snce then but Ganassi used to require at least one "off day" before Kyle ran the cup car. Thats why Knoxville was an exception.

They interviewed Shaffer earlier in the evening on the broadcast and he said (paraphrasing) "that he really enjoys racing against Larson because you always know he will race you hard AND CLEAN!". Quit trying to drum up drama where there is none. The incident with Larson and Shaffer on the backstretch was just hard racing and one guy dipped his wheel over the lip of the track which pulled his car off the surface. Nothing more than that.

Cheers!

I'm going with the socially backward idiot option.

Cheers!

I'm pretty sure all the social media uproar convinced his NASCAR owner to let him race a limited dirt schedule. I don't think the nonwing ban is a rumor either, its a fact. But they let him run midgets, & I'm looking forward to seeing him at NASCAR Eastern Midget swing

Look in the mirror....

LOL hilarious.

The most recent interview of Larson I've heard, is by Rip the Fence's podcast with hosts Tyler Burnett and Dillon Welch. If I remember correctly Larson states he can race so many sprint car races a year.

In 2017 when there was a bunch of social media support to Let Kyle Race, it was questionable if him racing Saturday at the Nationals would effect his Sunday performance. I think he finished top 3? that year on Sunday.

I've never considered Kyle a dirty racer or overally aggressive. I've seen Thomas Kennedy pull some pretty aggressive moves in Knoxville, but still don't consider him a dirty racer. And really for a driver to be considered dirty I'd need to see repeated offenses. 

I'm curious how many posters on here will see Kyle race in Knoxville in a couple of weeks?

Keep It Real

I didn't see him shove Shaffer off the track, didn't even see contact, it was just a normal move that was probably done by over half the field on Tuesday. The general concensus is that Larson is a clean driver that everyone enjoys racing against, and he can take some additional risks that others would not since they have to race 50+ times a year or more.

Larson's current contract states he can race up to 25 sprint car races/yr according to the articles written back in 2017. The other thing it states is that there needs to be a 24hr window in between an extracurricular race and his regular cup race. The social media craze back in 2017 was that some were up in arms that he dared attempt to qualify for the Nationals knowing full well he could not race on Saturday. Much like the year or 2 prior when Rico couldn't race saturday because of the truck race. Some fans were mad and requesting tha they let him race before his qualifying night even began. Then he won his qualifying night and said his car felt awesome and said he may have to have a conversation with Chip. Everyone reached and voiced the whole #LETKYLERACE that year. Chip agreed, Larson finished 2nd at the National, and won the Nascar race in Michigan the following day. I think as long as he starts near the front for the Nationals, Chip will let him race. He seems to do better on Sunday after he races in the week prior.

If he wouldn't have bounced his right rear off of four coming to the white flag in 2017, I think he might have won the damn thing. 

True dat! 

Very original...

No

ey,he's from the north of somewhere, cold,and the Mounties are after him...agreed, not much informed about Kyle..

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

Apparently they waived the 24 hour rule for him to run Joliet in a winged sprint and midget,  although the NASCAR race was right next door. Funny thing was the dirt races Friday went till after 1am and he won both features. Incredible driver! Wish he could run non-wing sprints but he and Rico and Bell tend to avoid them. Bell told me once at Knoxville he won't set foot in a non-wing sprint. 

He doesn't "tend to avoid them".... his NASCAR team forbids it