Kyle Busch’s son, Brexton, is following in his famous father’s footsteps as a race car driver. So, too, is Kevin Harvik’s son, Keelan. And next up is Kyle Larson’s son, Owen, and daughter, Audrey, who is just starting.
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Ten-year-old Owen and seven-year-old Audrey are both trying their hand at the steering wheel. And, they are getting in the best way possible: with their father’s expert tutelage and inspiration.
Because he’s older, Owen has more experience in racing than Audrey. But he’s been kind of fickle. Two years ago, he didn’t want anything to do with racing; baseball was his game. But Owen has changed since then, although it’s been tough at times.
Part of Owen’s transformation could likely be traced to Brexton Busch, who is three years older than him. Brexton has been showing a lot of his natural talent at one of the tracks Owen races on: The Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina, about 30 minutes north of Charlotte.
“It’s been really satisfying because Katelyn and I had like an adult conversation with him a month and a half ago,” Kyle Larson said on this week’s edition of the Stacking Pennies Podcast with Corey LaJoie and Skip Flores.
“He’d been bugging me to run a race with him at Millbridge. He’d been doing pretty good at Millbridge this year, almost won like his second A-class race out there,” added Larson.
And then Owen suddenly seemed to lose interest. “Well, so then he kind of dialed it back a lot after that,” Larson said of Owen.
“I think he’s scared of crashing or whatever…He just did really bad, you know, not trying. I was just getting really pissed watching him because he wasn’t trying and just following people running the bottom,” he added.
So it was time for some tough Love from Kyle and Katelyn to teach their son an important life lesson about not giving up. “That night, like the whole way home, we kind of belittled him a little bit,” Larson said.
“We’re just hard on him. We were both equally just basically telling him, like, ‘Hey, this isn’t just about racing, but like anything in life takes effort, and if you don’t start putting effort in, we’re not doing this, like you’re wasting our time. Like, we don’t want to go out there and watch you run in the back. We don’t want to see you not try,” added the 2021 Cup Series champion.
And it worked! “Dude, since then, like he’s been way better,” Larson said.
“I’ve been proud of him because he’s been running on his iRacing more. He’s been doing all the things that I want him to do, and then it’s translating to results. It’s really cool to see he’s like pulling slide jobs now at Millbridge, and you can visibly see him trying,” he added.
Owen’s racing schedule is packed
Larson knows a thing or two about balancing a packed racing calendar. Between his full-time NASCAR Cup Series commitments and his regular sprint car and dirt track events, Larson’s schedule is among the busiest in motorsports.
But these days, he isn’t the only one in his family logging an impressive number of races. Owen’s racing schedule is almost as full as his father’s.
“I was looking at Owen’s schedule and he’s gonna end up running like 51 or 52 races, which I think is a good balance because some of those are doing double duty, so it’s really not that many days of racing,” said Larson.
While the number may sound overwhelming for a child, Larson explained that it ultimately depends on the kid’s interest. He compared Owen’s schedule to that of other young drivers like Brexton Busch, who races even more. He then explained that every family handles it differently.
“There are kids that do less; there are kids like Brexton who do way more. I think it’s just all dependent on their interest and how involved they want to be and what they’re into outside the car,” said Larson.
Still, Larson acknowledged that the demands aren’t just on Owen but on his family as a whole — especially his wife, Katelyn.
“It’s a lot for Katelyn, probably more than the kids, her having to kill them around, and they’ve been going to Oklahoma a lot to race this year. So, shout out to Katelyn. Yeah, shout out to Oklahoma for sure,” said Larson.
