On Monday, Kyle Larson said he wanted to ‘embarrass NASCAR’ and embarrass Xfinity Series drivers when he races against them a handful of times a year.
He admitted it was an arrogant stance to take but also conceded even then, while talking to Kevin Harvick on his ‘Happy Hours’ show that a lot of that stance was just about giving the younger drivers a chance to learn how it’s done. That is certainly what he did on Saturday at Bristol leading 277 of 300 laps.
He expounded on that element during a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“When I was a full-time Xfinity guy I loved that the Cup Series, or when Cup guys would run, and they got to run every single week… it really pushed me to become a better racecar driver, because I could compare myself to them,” Larson said. “I could race behind them, learn from guys like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth and whoever else. I even raced against Jimmie Johnson in an Xfinity race.
“So I felt like because of that, once Xfinity guys, or even back before me, whatever Busch series or whatever, when they came to Cup, they were ready for Cup because they were competing with Cup guys every Saturday and beating them or getting beat. But regardless they were learning.”
Unlike when Larson was a developing driver in the Xfinity Series, there is now a limit on the number of times a Cup driver can races against those drivers, currently five times a year.
“Well now you don’t get that, so Xfinity guys, I don’t feel like are as good as they once were,” Larson said. “And definitely not as prepared for Cup as they once were. I think that’s why you see a guy like Ty Gibbs. I really like Ty Gibbs. He’s an Xfinity Series champion, but he’s yet to win a race. I think a lot of that comes from just the limits that NASCAR’s put on.”
That is to say nothing of lack of practice time across all three NASCAR national touring divisions.
“With that being said, I, when I run Xfinity, I want to smash the field just so they can see where the bar is really at,” Larson said. “Because they have no clue when they’re just racing with each other every week. They might think they’re good and think they’re ready and all of that. But until you get out there with a Cup Series guy, you just don’t know.
“So I like going out there and leading races by 10 to almost 17 seconds at Homestead and just showing them that, ‘Hey, you guys are doing good but you have a lot of work to do if you want to be ready for the Cup Series.’”
