I had a racing moment this weekend watching NASCAR at Bristol: Kyle Larson is a short track God. I understand now why he loves Bristol and has had so much success there. He’s driving Bristol like it’s still covered in dirt. When everyone was sticking to the bottom of the slick cement track for grip, Larson was taking the high line and making easy work of moving up the field from 8th to 1st. (Forgive me if I’m crossing IndyCar oval terms with NASCAR oval terms – it is the high line? The outside line? Is it a line at all? LMK). This is a guy who’s used to going high and pushing the cushion on a dirt track, looking for a chance to pull a slider to the bottom, and that’s exactly what he was doing – he was driving that Next Gen like it was a 410.
The remarkable part of this story is not that Larson won both stages and led the most laps of the race, it’s that I was able to connect the dots between a driver’s racing style across 2 series. If you follow along, you know that I am about 3 seasons into NASCAR and on my first full season of Sprint racing, so this was a moment for me. Perhaps it’s not as spectacular as the Gen Z’rs who discovered they could cut a mango in half, but it was a personal sense of accomplishment.
I was not happy to see Ty Gibbs win that race. I hate to see someone who played no role up front manage to take a lead on the last 25 laps of a 500 lap race (of which Larson led more than half) through caution luck and pit stop strategy alone, which happens A LOT in NASCAR, and Ty Gibbs is not a good sportsman. To be the grandson of one of the most respected sportsmen in American history, I find him lacking in quality of character. Oh, and because he’s not Kyle Larson.
I have a new favorite track though. Iowa Speedway has always been my favorite racetrack and with that off the IndyCar calendar, Bristol will do nicely. I don’t think I realized I was a short track girl in-the-making until I had a frame of reference. I needed a fascination with Kyle Larson to find Sprint, and needed to understand both Iowa and Sprint to get Bristol. It was a full circle moment for me- pun intended.
