Mother Nature tried her figurative best to derail the inaugural High Limit race this week at East Bay Motorsports Park (Florida) but Kyle Larson says he came away feeling really good about the future following the first two races.
Opening night on Monday was postponed halfway through the event with the features being completed on Tuesday before the regularly scheduled program. The races were won by Larson and Tyler Courtney respectively.
Both shows packed out the Tampa area bullring and the races were well received, especially the Tuesday finale. Larson co-owns the series with brother-in-law Brad Sweet, the World of Outlaws champion from the past five years, and sports streaming giant FloSports.
“I thought it went really good,” Larson said during Daytona 500 media day on Wednesday. “I tried to follow along with the broadcast as much as I could throughout the night, watching heat races I wasn’t in so I could listen to how that was going.
I thought (play-by-play broadcaster) Chase Raudman did a good job. I thought (pit reporter) Tony LaPorta did a good job. I loved the DJ playlist that Jacob Allen had.”
A feature of High Limit is that each night features a race day soundtrack selected by the racers — a motorsports equivalent of a baseball walk-up song.
“I thought the night ran really efficiently,” Larson said. “We ran half of Monday’s program, had a quick turnaround and had a great rest of the night with an awesome surface and awesome race too. A good start but I’m not surprised that it was a good start either.
“Everyone that we have at High Limit has a ton of experience and are really, really good at what they do. So yeah, I think it was a great start to build on something and just keep on making things bigger and better from there.”
Speaking largely to a NASCAR and mainstream reporter group on Wednesday at Daytona, the questions were framed in a way that requested Larson draw business parallels from his experiences in NASCAR to what he is contributing to High Limit.
But the reality is that Larson is more the competitive face of the series from the 25 or so races he will run in 2024. Instead, the business side is run by Sweet, Flo and Larson’s business manager, Josh Peterman.
And he is taking inspiration from World of Outlaws, the industry leader in dirt racing for nearly four decades.
“World of Outlaws, they’ve done a super good job of building the sport to where it’s at,” Larson said. “It also takes fresh thoughts and ideas to get things to the next level, and that’s what we’re trying to do. That obviously takes a lot of money though, as well. Trying to get all that to come together is difficult at times.
“We have big ideas. It’s just going to take time. You can’t do everything, like, overnight like I would like. I think we’re all impatient, especially when you start something new. I think if you can be patient, slowly build into things, you can build something that’s really strong.”
Larson was asked about the sustainability of the series, especially from the sense that there is already a mainstream series in the space, in the World of Outlaws.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have the thought that we could continue to do this until I’m dead,” Larson said.
And Larson echoed a sentiment that Sweet has issued for months too.
“Yeah, too, we’re not trying to kill off the Outlaws,” Larson said. “I think that’s what fans might think. We’ve proven already there’s room for two national series. Fans thought you were going to take the Outlaw drivers and split them in half. With our business model, we’ve been able to attract a lot of other teams to travel.”
To that point, High Limit purchased the Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania based All Stars Circuit of Champions series from Tony Stewart and more or less elevated the super-regional tour to a national championship.
It retained several All Stars mainstays like Courtney and Justin Peck while adding independent ‘true outlaw’ national stars like Rico Abreu and Anthony Macri. It didn’t pull that many teams away from the Outlaws.
“We had 58 cars at East Bay, Tampa, Florida, in February,” Larson said. “I would have never thought we would have 58 sprint cars or 17 or 18, whatever you have, full-time traveling teams signed up right now. They obviously believe in us.
“I think fans have their opinions, as we all do. They’ll see. I think they got to see a lot last night. I think the night went really good. I think the broadcast went great. That’s only been two races. It’s going to come over time.”
Larson was asked if he feels a responsibility to give back or to help grow dirt racing in creating the word. He didn’t think ‘responsibility’ was the right word.
But he does view this through an altruistic lens.
“Yeah, no, I mean, there’s been so many people before me to get to this level,” Larson said. “I think, yeah, I definitely look at it at times — not at times, but that for sure is a part of why I feel like I have a responsibility to grow this sport that I’m passionate about.
“Tony came and did his time, grew sprint car racing I think, dirt racing a lot. He’s kind of moved on to different ventures over the last handful of years. Now he presented a great opportunity for me to kind of take over the reins a little bit. That’s a huge honor.
“I feel like, too, with my youth and where I’m at in my career, really in the prime of my career right now, with relationships I built that we can continue to grow it. I want to see it grow to the magnitude that I think it can get to someday.
“I guess I just see the opportunity there, and all the people on our team are ambitious enough to try and get it to that level.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.