“I’m More Similar to Tony” — Kyle Larson Admits to Have Been Heavily Inspired by Tony Stewart While Creating His Busy Racing Schedule

Everyone knows how much Tony Stewart has invested his time into dirt racing, even during his prime in the Cup Series. And Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson believes that he aligns better with Stewart and would want to emulate him.

Recently, talking with fellow Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie on the sets of the Stacking Pennies podcast, Larson spoke about this very aspect of how he related more to Stewart than Jeff Gordon. Despite the fact that growing up both these drivers were his idols.

During the interview, Larson stated, “Growing up, I was a huge Jeff Gordon fan, huge Tony Stewart fan. I would say I’m more similar to Tony, just in that I still race a lot of dirt stuff. So I guess, you know, emulate him some.

“And that’s why, you know, when I build out a schedule, I’m like, ‘What would Tony do in his prime?’ Like, he would have wanted to race full season in Cup and go race all the dirt stuff that he does. And not only dirt but other types of cars. So yeah, I feel like I try to be like, what he was in his prime.”

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Kyle Larson thinks Jeff Gordon is more business-savvy

During the same interview, he mentioned that Gordon was “more like proper and businessy” than Tony. It makes sense since even after moving away from the Cup Series, Gordon invested his time in the business side of Hendrick Motorsports.

On the other hand, Stewart moved on to other formats of racing—mostly dirt. However, by no means does this imply that he hasn’t been paying attention to Stewart-Haas Racing, co-owned by him and Gene Haas. He also runs an NHRA team with his wife—drag racer Leah Pruett. Moreover, he has also been involved with the Superstar Racing Series.

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Coming back to Larson’s preference to emulate Stewart, it does make sense since he too is completely devoted to racing in as many series’ as possible.