Sure, NASCAR is dangerous. But within NASCAR too, there’s one particular type of racetrack that is far more dangerous than the others. It’s the superspeedways, and after the final race of the regular season at Daytona, the wife of 2021 champion Kyle Larson made her thoughts pretty clear on the racing on those tracks.
She wrote on her X account after the race, “I hate this kind of racing.” This was probably because of the violent wreck involving Ryan Preece where his racecar shot up in the air after it made contact with the grass and ended up doing several violent barrel rolls.
Recently, Larson too opened up on his thoughts on the nature of superspeedway racing, how NASCAR can make it safer, and gave credit where it’s due.
Kyle Larson isn’t a fan of superspeedway racing
In a recent interview, Larson was asked about what he would do after his wife, Katelyn Sweet, made that post regarding the racing at Daytona. “There’s nothing you can do,” he replied.
“I hate the racing too. It’s on the schedule and they keep adding more of them, it seems. It is what it is. But you just hope they continue to make the sport safer, which they have.”
“The cars have come a long way from the last decade and there’s always room to improve, so I think looking forward, they can look at paving the insides of the racetrack because that wreck would’ve never happened if there was some grass there.”
Larson wondered about the whole point of having something that is tough to maintain and causes accidents that shouldn’t happen. Having said that, he applauded NASCAR for their leaps in safety. “There’s a lot to be proud of, that he was able to walk away from that wreck,” Larson added as he claimed that every sport is dangerous either way.
“Anything you can strap into can hurt you, but you just try not to think about it.”
Larson on his mantra for preparing mentally for big races
Last year, Kyle Larson, who was defending his Cup title from 2021, became one of the playoffs’ big upsets as he exited after the Round of 12 because of a mistake he made at the ROVAL. This time around, he is hoping to not make those mistakes, hoping they go through Talladega, and finish the races inside the Top 10.
This led to the interviewer asking him how he prepares mentally for that to which Larson had a very simple answer. “You just try and think about the positives of your races before and moving forward,” he said.
“You try not to think about, ‘Oh shoot. I spun out here last time, I can’t do that again…’, because then you start having negative thoughts creeping in your mind, you’re gonna have negative results.”
Larson claimed that all he tries to do is to be positive, think about getting the best finish possible, and hope everything will take care of itself.
