RPW Column: Kyle Larson Has Sights Set Squarely On One Thing…A Knoxville Nationals Win

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – KNOXVILLE, IA – He’ll be forever known as “King Kyle the 38th” after winning the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway and taking his rightful place on the throne.

He won the most recent NASCAR Cup Series race, last Sunday at Watkins Glen International for Hendrick Motorsports.

He’s already visited victory lane in a Sprint Car this week. On Monday night, his Paul Silva-owned #57 parked in victory lane after nailing down the $21,000-to-win Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway for the second time in his career.

To say that Kyle Larson is hot right now, in just about anything he drives, is an understatement. That’s a given, and has been since 2020.

Now, he’s got one thing on his mind…Knoxville.

For the Elk Grove, CA driver, the 60th running of the Knoxville Nationals is the next crown jewel he’d love to add to his resume and he goes into it as one of the favorites. Kyle has a career-best finish of second to Donny Schatz during the 2017 edition of the event and backed that up one year later with another podium finish (third).

Unfortunately, due to his NASCAR schedule at the time, he was forced to bow out of the 2019 Nationals after not advancing through his qualifying night and last year’s event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the Raceway held a special event called “The One & Only” for two nights to go along with the $50,000-to-win Capitani Classic. In those three races, driving for Silva, Larson won the opener and finished second on night two. He then went on to capture the Classic on Saturday to close out the weekend.

Couple that with an All Star Sprint A-Main he won to start that month of August, and it’s say to say this man knows Knoxville.

Larson wants to win the Nationals and wants it bad. He’s been close, competing in the Saturday A-Main five times and having four finishes of sixth or better. Now, he’s looking to add his name to a list of legendary winners that include Kinser, Swindell, Wolfgang, Schatz, Gravel and even his brother-in-law, Brad Sweet.

“Outside of my first World of Outlaws Sprint Car win at my home track, the Kings Royal back in July has to be the biggest win of my career to date,” Larson said. “I’d love to win the Nationals, though. It’s a really special event and to add my name on that list of would be big.”

Larson will chase after his first Knoxville Nationals title this week while also racing at Indianapolis on Sunday for the NASCAR Cup Series’ inaugural event on the Speedway’s road course. He will, however, have to fly back and forth between the two venues as NASCAR has practice at Indy scheduled at 11:05 EST on Saturday morning.

That should leave him enough time to fly back to Knoxville that evening to compete in the Nationals. The Indy road course is one of eight events on the ’21 Cup Series schedule that features practice and qualifying.

With the rumors circulating that the NASCAR schedule might get busier in 2022 with more weekend activities being added, could this be Larson’s last shot at getting a Knoxville Nationals win for the foreseeable future?

“With the Cup schedule potentially going back to the way it use to be, there may be fewer opportunities for me to run as many races as I have been, especially the big ones,” he said. “It was good that I was able to take advantage when I could this year for different races like the Kings Royal. Hopefully I can have a good showing at Knoxville again and maybe win that one as well.”

Even with his schedule as hectic as it is right now, Larson’s truly humbled by all the different opportunities he’s had to strap into race cars and do what he loves.

“This is really an amazing time for me right now,” he said. “I have to say thanks to all the car owners I’ve had the chance to race for. They let me run a lot of places, like Knoxville this week, so that I can chase the big wins which I really look forward to.”

It’s easy to say Larson is one of the favorites to capture the title this week. However, having someone like Silva turning wrenches on his car helps out a lot.

Take Monday night at Southern Iowa, for example. During the King of the Hill portion of night, the team experienced engine troubles. That forced them to change the motor right before the feature. They did so in roughly 15 minutes.

Larson was able to start fourth and went on to have a spirited battle with Brian Brown before collecting the checkers and big payday.

It’s events like these that Larson lives for. He knows just how important short track racing is and what it means to have big name NASCAR drivers racing on the grass roots level when their schedules permit.

“Short track racing is booming,” he said. “I think it’s great and I just love racing. Having success on the grass roots level assists to grow the sport in general. Whether it’s NASCAR, Sprint Cars, Late Models, Modifieds or whatever. I know the fans get into it because they go to more short track races each year than NASCAR events.”

It’s that connection that Larson feels helps the sport as a whole.

“Seeing the racers they get to watch on Sundays come to their local tracks, I think, is important to the fans and to the grass roots of our sport,” he said. “I encourage other NASCAR drivers to do it as well. It seems like more of them are in the last few years. That’s awesome to see and I’m glad I can be a part of it.”

As the 2021 racing season moves towards the fall, Larson’s schedule shifts quite a bit to weekend racing, which means there may be more focus on his Sunday job driving the Hendrick Motorsports #5 Cup car.

“My schedule just naturally slows down by the time the NASCAR playoffs usually roll around,” he said. “There isn’t much in the way of mid-week racing I can do once the playoffs begin. Once we get through the Nationals this week, pretty much all mid-week stuff ends so there wouldn’t be much I could do anyway.”

Kyle Larson’s bid for the 60th Knoxville Nationals crown begins on Thursday with his Qualifying night with hopes to make Saturday’s A-Main.