While he understands the broader point, Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t like how Kyle Larson articulated his joy in dominating Xfinity Series races the handful of times he gets to partake.
Larson made his point on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hours after a dominant performance in both Cup and the Xfinity Series. The following comments from his Dirty Mo Media Dale Jr Download podcast.
“In Xfinity, I do get motivated, and this is going to come across like very cocky, but I want to embarrass them, honestly,” Larson said. “I want to embarrass NASCAR a little bit because they just don’t let Cup guys run anymore, and the kids probably think they’re in a good spot and they don’t know where the bar really is at.”
Earnhardt didn’t totally like the tone, even if he appreciated the point at the heart of the matter.
“The first thing he said, I didn’t like. He said he wanted to embarrass the field, and he wanted to embarrass NASCAR, and he was not happy that they limit the races the Cup guys can run. The rest of the point he made was valid,” Earnhardt said. “He’s basically saying that these kids that are in there think they’re better than they are and I like to go in there and show them where the standard is or what they might be up against if they were to ever get to the Cup level and they need to know that now. They need to know how much harder they need to work. I get that, Mark Martin was that guy for years.
“He was the guy that would show up and you’re like, ‘Shit, nearly impossible to beat.’ Damn, he pushed you. Pushed us all to try harder. We would not have raised our game if he had not showed up. Kyle Busch did that. [He] would show up and take the money. It was frustrating because racing against Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing, you’re racing against not only an elite driver, but elite equipment. … When he showed up and was going to run first, he knocked everybody in the field down a notch. When you do that a lot throughout the year, that adds up financially for those teams.”
Due to a decade plus of Cup drivers dominating and winning a large majority of races on the schedule, NASCAR now limits drivers that race full-time on the highest level to just five starts each in Xfinity and the Camping World Truck Series.
With that said, Earnhardt wants him to run more races and in one of his cars too.
“You know, I wish he would sign up for some more races now,” Earnhardt said. “Because I know one race team, one owner and 160 employees that would love another shot. … He can expect that to absolutely nerf the other teams and our team. We have a relationship with them [Hendrick Motorsports]. We share information with them. They’re in our meetings and they take all the information we have and then they put it in his car. And he goes out there and runs good. It was just odd.
“… I don’t know why he didn’t lap the field. He was out there Saturday in the Xfinity race to lap the field, and he should’ve. … He had the field covered and he should the way he ran. I understand the point he was trying to make but the way he presented it only made me wish he would sign up for a few more races this year so we can have a chance. He’ll tell us the Hendrick car is full. They got [Corey] Day, Rajah [Caruth], [Jake] Finch — they got a season full. But there’s other Chevrolets out there and he won’t be in that sweet Hendrick equipment carrying him around that racetrack. But hey, he’s the difference maker, right?”
