“Not on My Radar at All”: Kyle Larson Has No Time for Tony Stewart’s SRX Series

On Sunday, Kyle Larson etched his name in the history books, becoming only the eighth driver in history to win the Knoxville Nationals two or more times. The 2021 Knoxville winner pocketed a cool $185,000 to complete a thoroughly dominant weekend, picking up his second victory at the marquee event. The Hendrick driver has established himself as one of the most versatile drivers behind the wheel, with some comparing his all-surface domination to three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart.

Speaking of Stewart, the SHR co-owner runs the highly successful SRX Series, currently in its third season. A whole host of drivers on the current grid participate in the series, which naturally begs the question – will Kyle Larson make his way to Smoke’s series, eventually?

Kyle Larson on running in Tony Stewart’s SRX Series

With fellow Cup Series drivers like Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin already participating in SRX, 2024 is expected to see even greater participation by top-level drivers. Larson is known to experiment in different formats, and during a media session, was asked if he was interested to run in the series.

The 2021 Cup champ replied, “I mean, it’s not on my radar at all right now. I’m so busy doing everything that I do outside of NASCAR that I really don’t have time for it. But, I’ll never say never. Right now, I haven’t really thought about it. They’ve asked me to run a handful, it just never seems to work out. So yeah…”

Does Larson think he can give Tony Stewart a run for his money in SRX?

This week’s Eldora race saw Tony Stewart completely dominating the race on the way to the checkered. When Larson was asked if he felt he could give Stewart a run for his money, the driver replied, “Yeah, I don’t know, I didn’t get to watch, so I don’t know how the track was or anything like that. Tony is obviously an amazing race car driver, so yeah he is always gonna be tough. But like I said, I didn’t watch, so I don’t know how the race played out.”

To think that Larson was not approached would be foolish. Stewart has maintained on record that according to him, Larson is one of the most dominant drivers he has ever seen. In an interview, when asked if he thought Larson was better than him, Smoke said, “I honestly do.”

The respect goes both ways, with the #5 driver recently naming Stewart as his favorite NASCAR driver along with Hendrick legend Jeff Gordon. It will indeed be a treat for racing fans if Larson enters SRX and goes toe-to-toe with Stewart on the track. And with the way Larson is racking up one series after another, it seems a matter of when, and not if.