Chris Graythen | Getty Images for NASCAR
Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t realize it yet, but he is getting amongst the best, and they’ll be four abreast when he visits Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania on September 26.
Kyle Larson recently made his debut in the CARS Tour, a traveling Late Model Stock series co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. But it required a little quid pro quo to make the race happen. Earnhardt would have to make an appearance at a High Limit Sprint Car Series event, a 410 Sprint Car series the 2021 Cup Series champion owns with four-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet.
It’s the first time Earnhardt would have attended a Sprint Car race of any kind. In fact, Earnhardt is going to make a team road trip out of it with the Dirty Mo Media group, creating content to be used across the multiple shows and projects.
For his part, Larson is just excited to be able to show Earnhardt his favorite form of racing after Dale Jr. did the same for him.
“Lernerville is just a great track,” Larson said. “I guess he’s never been to a Sprint Car race so I just want him to have a good time. I would like for him to get to experience everything there. I want him to get behind the wheel of a push truck and push us off.”
Sprint Cars don’t have onboard starters so they need to be pushed to fire off.
“I want him to experience everything about our sport, go to the flag stand,” Larson said. “I don’t know because I’m around it all the time and I don’t know what would be intriguing to a fan from a different kind of racing.
“I just hope he gets to do whatever he wants to do, and enjoys his time, and hopefully the fans give him space to enjoy his time there.”
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From a business standpoint, Larson hopes both he and Earnhardt come away from their shared experiences becoming a better promoter as a result of jumping in a new environment.
“He’s got a lot of experience now running CARS Tour and me with High Limit so maybe we can sit down later and bounce ideas off each other,” Larson said. “I hope we can help him.”
Kyle Larson races frequently beyond his NASCAR duties, primarily on dirt in Sprint Cars, Late Models and Midgets. He won the Knoxville Nationals for the second time in three years on August 13, a race that paid $185,000 to win, a reflection of just how prestigious that discipline has become.
World of Outlaws driver Logan Schuchart won a million dollars at Eldora Speedway in the Sprint Car Million last month. This is ultimately a chance for Earnhardt, a diehard motorsports devotee, to experience a growing discipline.