Why NASCAR star Kyle Larson was racing in Tampa before the Daytona 500

TAMPA — Near the end of Monday’s qualifying run at East Bay Raceway Park , the public address announcer introduced the driver of the No. 57 as a former winner here.Which was like calling Tom Brady a passer who once beat Purdue.Yes, Kyle Larson took the checkered flag at this 1/3-mile clay oval just north of Gibsonton four years ago. But that’s underselling one of the most talented drivers on the planet — one racing legend Tony Stewart recently called “the unicorn” every team seeks.Larson won the 2021 NASCAR championship and has 17 Cup Series victories over his last three seasons. He has won some of the most prestigious events in sports cars (Rolex 24 at Daytona), sprint cars (Knoxville Nationals, twice) and midget cars (Chili Bowl Nationals, also twice). He’ll make his Indianapolis 500 debut in May and is a contender to win his first Daytona 500 on Sunday. So why was he strapping into a winged sprint car at an endangered track beside a fertilizer plant?“It’s a little more laidback here,” Larson said. “Just pure.”Or, as one of the track’s faded signs promises in all caps: “RACING AS IT SHOULD BE: ‘FUN & DIRTY.’” Racing like the kind Larson grew up with in California, before he became a superstar. Racing like the kind Larson wants to promote as co-owner of the High Limit Racing series that opened its 59-race campaign Monday in what’s expected to be East Bay’s farewell season.The 56 entrants were a motorsports medley. Conner Morrell, a 19-year-old from Bradenton. Kasey Kahne, who won 18 Cup races before retiring for health reasons. Wayne Johnson, a 52-year-old Oklahoman.And the top draw, Larson.The pre-race autograph/selfie line in front of his hauler never ended. One woman asked him to sign her pink shirt. A couple brought a tray of treats. A man posed for a picture with Larson and a souvenir he brought from Jacksonville — a hunk of Larson’s 2014 Daytona 500 car.The crowd was still there, blocking the exit of the car in the next lane, when it was finally time to climb in for hot laps. Dusty Larson (no relation) shook his head.“I couldn’t take that,” said Larson, a 15-year-old sprint car driver from Ohio.The other Larson didn’t seem to notice. It’s nothing compared to what he’ll experience when he gets into his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the Great American Race.“I’m really just a competitor,” he said.One of a breed that, if not dying, is at least drying up. NASCAR stars don’t moonlight in smaller series the way drivers like Stewart and Clint Bowyer did not that long ago. The cars are too specialized. The stakes are too high. The risks are too great. A weeknight wreck at a dirt track could derail a weekend (or worse) in the cut-throat, big-money Cup Series.“I don’t think about that,” Larson said.He prefers to think about it the other way. Because NASCAR has limited practices and tests, every lap counts. Larson expects to compete in 100 races across series this year — far more than just the 36 Cup events.Though the cars aren’t similar, Larson finds the experience helps. His 950-horsepower, 1,400-pound sprint car is tough to drive. The racing is tight, so every move happens fast.“If you can figure out how to drive these and be comfortable in them,” Larson said, “then it helps everything else slow down for you.”Larson was comfortable enough this night. He qualified third in his group and won his heat before rain postponed the rest of the event to Tuesday. Anything beyond that would mess up Larson’s schedule as he vies for a second Daytona 500 pole in three seasons Wednesday evening.He still enjoys the pageantry around that, too, and he’s looking forward to another sold-out Daytona crowd of 100,000 fans. But there’s something differently special about a place where you can park for free on an unlit, sandy road, buy boiled peanuts and $3 beers from cash-only stands and find wooden bleachers dotted with dried dirt to watch the daredevils drive.So 150 miles and a world away from the World Center of Racing, Larson does what he was born to do. He gets into a car and waits for the green flag, ready to put on a show.

Why NASCAR star Kyle Larson was racing in Tampa before the Daytona 500

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