It was November when we sat down with Kyle Larson to discuss his banner season in sprint cars, midgets, Silver Crown cars, and even late models.
It was November when we sat down with Kyle Larson to discuss his banner season in sprint cars, midgets, Silver Crown cars, and even late models. In April, a word uttered during an iRacing event suddenly derailed his NASCAR career path.
Within 48 hours, he had lost his sponsors and his NASCAR ride.
As a result, Larson set his sights on short track racing, and hit the road with wife Katelyn (sister of racer Brad Sweet, known for shot-gunning a beer in victory lane when her husband earns a win) and kids Owen and Audrey. Not that he had ever left the dirt tracks. In fact, he had just launched the 2020 season by fulfilling one of his dreams with a midget win at the Chili Bowl in Tulsa.
Larson ran a true outlaw schedule, seemingly racing everywhere that COVID-19 restrictions permitted race events to be competed, and was winning everywhere as well. From World of Outlaws and All Star Circuit of Champions wins, to USAC midget wins, to a pair of USAC Silver Crown victories, and a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series checkers, Kyle was the odds-on favorite to win each time he rolled into the pits.
By the end of November, he had accumulated 45 feature wins (with a little over 50 percent win ratio) and had secured a new NASCAR ride with Hendrick Motorsports for 2021, and was scheduled to compete in at least one more midget event in December.
Kyle was candid and forthcoming, as he discussed a year filled with turmoil and excitement that he — and most sprint car fans — will never forget.
SC&M: You started out 2020 by winning the Chili Bowl. Following the race, you stated, “I‘m sorry NASCAR, I‘m sorry Daytona, but this is the biggest race I‘ve ever won.” So, it was obviously a strong way to start your season.
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, the Chili Bowl‘s always been one that I‘ve wanted to win. And, I‘ve been close, it feels like, for a very long time now. And I‘ve had issues that have kept me from winning the Saturday night finale, whether it be mistakes on my part or engine failures or whatever it may be. It seems like, come Saturday I have some bad luck. So, it was just really cool to do my own thing this year, and have my own team with Paul Silva and win in our first attempt. So, it was something I‘d been thinking about doing for a few years, just didn‘t have the confidence to pull the trigger, and I‘m glad I did.
SC&M: After everything went down in April, what was your approach? Was it, let‘s sit down and try to plan and make a schedule or was it more like let‘s just take this season as it comes?
KL: Yeah, well I mean the way that this year has been, with the pandemic, you couldn‘t really plan for anything. There was a schedule out, but racing kind of stopped, then nobody knew when it was gonna start back up. And we didn‘t know what states we could race in or anything like that. So, there for the first couple months it seemed like, after racing started back up at Knoxville, you could only really plan like three weeks out in advance. So, we were able to go run what we could, and some races were popping up with the All Stars and we were able to follow that, and they were racing for some decent money there in the beginning.
So, yeah, there wasn‘t really any plan, just race as much as we could. And when things kind of started to settle in, as far as dirt track racing went, and you could plan more, we just tried to hit as many races as we could. You know, there was Ohio Speedweek, Pennsylvania Speedweek, Indiana Midget Week. There was a lot of racing we did throughout June and July and I think with us racing that much it kind of helped catch us back up to the competition. ‘Cause I felt like the last couple years we‘d fallen behind. So, we were able to catch up and get our car really good to where we were probably the best car in the country there for the majority of the season.
SC&M: When others were referring to you throughout the year, I often heard people say that ‘Kyle‘s making a statement‘ or that ‘Kyle‘s got something to prove.‘ But I never heard you say anything similar to that. Was there a thought that you needed to showcase your talent or make a statement this year?
KL: I don‘t know. I don‘t think…you know, when I started racing sprint cars again, it wasn‘t like I had this mindset of, you know, I felt like I had something to prove. I felt like I just wanted to take it race-by-race and do as good of a job as I could, and…I mean, I think somewhere in the back of your mind you‘re like, I wanna show how good I am in a race car, but that wasn‘t the main motivation or anything like that. I don‘t think I need any extra motivation. But I definitely think the season, with how good it‘s been, it‘s not something that I, obviously, set out to do in the beginning of the year. But the way things worked out is how it happened. And, in a way, I‘m glad I got to do it at a young age and close to…I don‘t feel like I‘m in my prime yet, but I feel like I‘m at a good age to go do that and do a good job, and I think race fans and competitors have always kind of wondered. And, myself, I‘ve always kind of wondered, what could I do? How much success could I have if I was doing this fulltime?
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