NASCAR star Kyle Larson can kick up dust on any track, and he’s always open to racing at different levels.
Take last week, for example. Larson won both the Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series races at Bristol Motor Speedway. Why is he open to racing both? Well, Larson provided some honest reasoning.
“In Xfinity, I do get motivated — and this is going to come across like very cocky — but I want to embarrass them, honestly,” Larson said on “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.” “I want to embarrass NASCAR a little bit because they just don’t let Cup [Series] guys run anymore, and the kids they probably think they’re in a good spot, and they don’t know where the bar is really at, so I like to go run those Xfinity races and get 10-second leads to let them realize that they’ve got a lot of room to improve, and I think that’s only better for our sport.
“When those young guys can compete with Cup guys, they’re better suited for the Cup Series once they get there. Yes, I want to smash the field when I run Xfinity, so that’s motivating for me, for sure.”
Even after becoming a full-time Cup Series driver in 2014, Larson has competed in a great number of races at the Xfinity level, which several drivers have done. From 2014-17, Larson made a combined 69 Xfinity starts while racing full-time in the Cup Series. Since, he has started just 16 races in the Xfinity Series but won eight of them.
Elsewhere, Larson attempted to race in both the famed Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day last year; a weather delay in the Indianapolis 500 and then a rain-shortened NASCAR race halted his attempt to pull off the double. He will again attempt the feat in 2025.
Kyle Larson MAKES STATEMENT after Cup & Xfinity win at Bristol: ‘I want to EMBARRASS NASCAR!’
[Read more: Does Bristol have a problem beyond Kyle Larson being just too good at the track?]
As for the present, Larson is fourth in the 2025 Cup Series standings (304 points), with two wins, five top-five finishes and six top-10 finishes through nine races. His other win this season came at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Larson’s next chance to “embarrass” the field is the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27 (3 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), as the Cup Series is off this coming Easter weekend.
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