
After spending the past month together in the Tulsa Expo, Kyle Larson believes Kyle Busch would quickly take to driving a high level 410 Sprint Car and hopes to see it happen.
Busch made his debut in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, and has also spent the past two years racing Micro Sprints in Tulsa Shootout, combined with racing alongside 9-year-old son Brexton weekly at Millbridge Speedway in North Carolina.
The two-time Cup Series champion also showed well in his Chili Bowl debut, advancing from his F-feature starting spot to a corresponding D-Main.
“I am always pessimistic, glass half empty,” Busch told Sportsnaut. “So it’s fine. It was good. It was definitely a learning experience. I just wanted to show a little bit better. I felt like my learning experience here in just 40 laps that I got running yesterday and today running against the curb was a lot. And understand that a little bit more and keep working at it.”
How did this correlate to his expectations?
“Close. Little less,” Busch said. “My crew asked me what I thought I could do or reach. I thought C main would be respectable. Didn’t reach that. But it all came to yesterday, the qualifier not going the way I needed the qualifier to go. That would have helped us put in probably the B today. And that would have been overachieving expectations. So messed up on all that. But can’t say enough about Al, Lucas Oil, Floracing. Everybody that helped us here in Midgets.”
Larson went on to win the Chili Bowl but was paying attention to his fellow Cup Series champion and now tells broadcaster FloRacing that Busch should race a 410 Sprint.
“I’ve watched him on his Winged Micro and he is much better than that than he is in the Non-Wing,” Larson said. “So I’m like, man, a winged sprint car would fit him way better. Like, he would actually be really good, I think, in a wing sprint car because he understands aerodynamics and how to find clean air and stuff.
“He’s bigger so he could fit in a Sprint Car better.”
His sales pitch also included safety.
“I think there are guys that come in from pavement racing and they’re uneducated on dirt racing and they think that winged sprint cars are more dangerous than midgets and stuff. But midgets are way more dangerous, I feel like, than winged sprint cars.
“So, that’s what I’ve also told him – there are safety features you can put on the car to help some things. So I would love to see him in a winged car.”
Larson, who co-owns the High Limit Series also referenced all the companion races his tour has with Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Lakeside near Kansas Speedway.
“I would love to see him at those events,” Larson said. “It’s just hard to find a good ride and I’m sure his budget’s probably close to maxed out with all the stuff that he is been buying for Brexton’s racing and his racing already.
“But, you know, maybe he will see him get some winged cars in the future.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.