This week, Kyle Larson has been going between New York and Iowa for NASCAR at Watkins Glen and the Knoxville Nationals. Of course, on the sprint car side of things, Larson and David Gravel have been having quite a rivalry between themselves.
Kyle Larson picked up a win on Thursday night. He is ready to race in the big event tonight after his NASCAR duties are over. His win tied him with Gravel for most wins at Knoxville with 13. Well, on Friday night, Gravel won his race to take back that record.
The two are clearly going to be looking to beat each other tonight in Knoxville. This rivalry is just heating up, and the fans are loving it, too. Comments from Larson on Thursday night were very interesting and are only playing up the conflict between the two.
Earlier this summer, Gravel complained that Larson doesn’t race sprint cars for a living, but makes big, risky moves on guys who do. Well, that may have come up again in the post-race press conference.
“The atmosphere is amazing, and it’s fun being good here at this track. This is really what our – we don’t run as much as everybody else. I don’t do this for a living,” Larson said, referencing Gravel’s comments from July. “So, this is kind of what our year builds up to. So, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves for this race.”
Always busy, Kyle Larson is no stranger to bouncing back and forth between race tracks. He is going to go into Knoxville and try to win one of the biggest sprint car races of the year, and then he’ll get back to Watkins Glen to chase another Cup Series win.
If you can, make sure you watch the Knoxville Nationals action tonight. If Larson and Gravel get near each other, it’s going to be one heck of a show.
Kyle Larson still searching for next win
The last time we saw Kyle Larson win was all the way back at Kansas, the 12th race of the season. Since then, he has only had three top-five finishes. Iowa was another tough setback after it looked like Larson was getting the hang of things again at Dover and Indy.
Watkins Glen is a track that Larson has had success at in the past. However, this year things are different. Shane van Gisbergen is in the Cup Series full-time, and if anyone wants to win on a road course, they have to go through the Kiwi, first. Add in Connor Zilisch this weekend, and things will not be easy for anyone on the track.
Perhaps a little bit of success on the dirt will help Larson lock in for the race on Sunday. He is also battling for the regular season championship against his own teammates and Denny Hamlin. Every race matters right now ahead of the playoffs.
