NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was penalized; Then, he made the crowd erupt as he drove through the field
This weekend, Kyle Larson is competing in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware. However, the avid dirt track racer is running two more races on the same weekend.
Hear from Kyle Larson following the World of Outlaws drama below.
On Friday night, the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Track hosted the World of Outlaws in Tennessee. Sprint Cars and Late Models took to the half-mile track for the Bristol Bash. Each feature paid $25,000 to win.
Kyle Larson is competing in both divisions. He’s the only driver doing so.
The driver finished 2nd in his heat race. However, the top two from each of the three heat races drew a number to set the first three rows of the feature race. In the late model, Larson drew the No. 2 pill, placing him on the outside row.
However, the World of Outlaws have a staging rule. A horn is blown to indicate that drivers have just 10 minutes to make it to the staging area. Larson was late to staging.
Officials noted that Larson was warned multiple times.
Larson began voicing displeasure with the call. He spoke to an official while he sat in his cockpit. The rest of the field was already on the track.
They did allow Larson to start the feature. However, instead of starting 2nd on the front row, the driver would be sent to the tail of the field and start last in the feature race.
As Larson brought up the tail of the field, team owner Kevin Rumley took his turn as speaking with an official. The official pointed toward the infield, telling the owner of the No. 6 to walk away.
Kyle Larson knocks the NASCAR Dirt race at Bristol due to windshields
Bristol Dirt
Late Model Feature
It was a night reminiscent of Scott Bloomquist blowing up the World at Eldora after coming from the tail. 30 laps of fire throwing were up next…
As the green dropped, most of the field went right to the inside lane. Meanwhile, at the back of the field, Larson was glued to the outside wall.
He was running inches off the wall and flying through the field. He picked up light right rear damage in the opening laps. However, when a caution dropped on lap 3, Larson had climbed from 22nd to 10th. Yet, as the 2nd place runner chose his lane, Larson was stuck with an inside lane restart.
When they went back green, Larson was back on the charge. By lap 12, anther caution came out. Larson was up to 7th. This time, Larson restarted on his preferred outside lane.
On lap 18, Scott Bloomquist was trapped in the dirty air of Kyle Hammer as they both ran the inside lane. Larson had the outside lane to himself and he picked off both spots at once. He’s was in 5th.
7 to go
With 7 to go, race leader Ricky Weiss struggled with lap traffic. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson drove right by Kyle Bronson to take 3rd away. Suddenly, Larson was in a battle with the leaders.
With 4 to go, Davenport noticed his crew members telling him to move to the top. He did, driving right by Weiss to take over the race lead. Larson followed him through and moved into 2nd.
With 2 laps to go, Larson was all over the bumper of Jonathan Davenport for the win. However, Davenport was in his lane and Larson got light in dirty air. As he lifted, Davenport opened up a several car length gap.
As they took the white flag, Larson drove it even deeper into turn one in an attempt to make up the lost ground. Instead, he jumped over the cushion and slammed the outside wall with his rear rear. Larson’s machine was destroyed.
He limped it back around to cross the finish line as Davenport took the win in night one at the Bristol Dirt Track.
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Kyle Larson frustrated with the World of Outlaws
After the race, Kyle Larson climbed from his car to a roar from the grandstands. He looked back and gave them a peace sign.
“Yeah, it would have been a lot easier if I didn’t have to come from the tail,” Kyle Larson told DirtVision.
“I’m the only guy doing double-duty here. So, there’s a lot of shit I gotta get done to get my stuff ready!”
The crowd cheered once more.
“It’s no wonder that you got teams like Mark Richards and them pulling off the tour.”
Larson is referring to Mark Richard Racing and driver Brandon Sheppard. Sheppard has run with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series full time since 2017. However, it was announced this week that the Rocket House car will run with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the rest of the year. Sheppard was not in attendance at Bristol despite a Lucas rain out.
Brandon Sheppard moves to full-time Lucas Late Model driver
“I’m glad the Outlaws made a good decision there and I could put on a show for you fans. Thank you crowd, for coming out.”
“Hopefully we can put on another show in this No. 57,” Larson concluded, speaking of his sprint car feature which was up directly following the late model feature.
Bristol Dirt Results: April 29, 2022 (World of Outlaws Late Models)
Bristol Dirt Results: April 29, 2022 (World of Outlaws Sprint Cars)
Kevin Rumley: No 6 car owner
Kevin Rumley is the owner of the No. 6 dirt late model. He added perspective to the call made at Bristol Motor Speedway…
“We’re over here on the sprint car side because Kyle is pulling double-duty,” Kevin Rumley tolds Always Race Day.
“You can’t hear the horns. We’re away from all the other late model guys. They were suppose to take care of us, all night.”
“On top of everything, we had a transmission go out in the heat race. So, we needed a push start. I texted them and said, ‘We needed a push start.’ “
“The first horn we heard, there was a minute thirty left to the 10 minute but, we were ready. The guy blowing the horn said, ‘Just get the car out here, I’ll push it to the staging lane.’ “
“Casey Shuman came down here and said, ‘You got 60 seconds. Just get it out here in the middle and we’ll get a push truck and everything will be ok.’ “
“The push truck driver was confused and was going to push him out onto the race track. We stopped him. Then, Casey said we were late.”
Kyle Larson’s NASCAR victory celebrations got him in trouble; He brought it back anyway
Larson could run less World of Outlaws events in the future
“From my point of view, we were misled by Casey Shuman,” Rumley added.
“And, not happy about it. I’m glad there are other series that are gaining momentum now. So, competitors have options to run other places when the management doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain.”
“People are here to see Kyle Larson. So, if they want him to continue to show up, the officials need to be more reasonable in a situation like this.”
“We’re going to re-evaluate who we race with in the future,” Rumley concluded.
Larson is set to practice his NASCAR Cup Series machine tomorrow at 10:30am ET in Delaware. That will be followed by Cup qualifying. He’s then scheduled to return to Bristol for the finale of the World of Outlaws show. He’ll cap his busy weekend in the Cup race on Sunday.
Watch the video from Friday night drama on the Bristol Dirt Track here
Links
Kyle Larson | Bristol Motor Speedway | World of Outlaws
