Kyle Larson Claims He Will Not Be “Pushed Out” of NASCAR as the Driver Sets a Timeline for His Career

Things are certainly changing in NASCAR when 42-year-old drivers are called Grandpas. With motorsport growing ever so demanding there has been a trend of driver calling it quits as soon as they reach their early 40s or even late 30s. The saying, ‘older you get, the harder the wall gets’ and this has been the case for most of the NASCAR drivers lately. However, Hendrick Motorsport’s Kyle Larson feels that he can go on about NASCAR racing right until much later.

It has to be noted that it was HMS who brought about the change to field a young driver in the Cup Series car. Notably, Jeff Gordon was the one who stood out and the trend continues with the likes of Chase Elliot and Joey Logano who started their career as teens.

Kyle Larson claims that he won’t retire anytime soon

Kenny Wallace recently invited Larson to be a guest on his YouTube Show Kenny Conversation. The theme of the conversation shifted to NASCAR drivers’ retirement age and how there has been a growing trend of driver hanging up their boots in their early 40s. Kenny even mentioned 42 as the magical number that every driver sort of now looks up to.

Larson explaining his take on this new retirement trend said, “I don’t see myself going to 40 but that’s not me retiring from racing. I think I’m different than others… A lot of these drivers, I don’t think they meant to be done at 42 but they kinda got pushed out of the sport a little bit with young drivers. But for me, there’s a lot of stuff that I want to accomplish while I’m still in my prime.”

He also went out to explain that he loves what he is doing while hinting a time frame where he would call it quits from racing. “I absolutely love what I’m doing now and who knows if I’m still loving it in eight years or whatever(…)Your life changes so who knows I could be in NASCAR till I’m 50. I love what I’m doing, I get to race dirt stuff, the time I get to race NASCAR all the time, and it’s a blast.”

Read More: Is Kyle Larson’s High Limit Racing Series a Serious Threat to Tony Stewart’s SRX Series? 

Retirement for a driver like Larson is inevitable but considering he is just 31 years old, he should be focusing on his next big challenge which is the upcoming season.

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What to expect from Larson for the Cup Series 2024?

Larson was within touching distance of yet another Cup Series Championship in the 2023 season. Having started the season in style with two wins in the first nine weeks, he failed to build on this momentum and went winless until the start of playoffs. Not only that, but the eight DNFs he incurred tolled heavily on him and he had to be content with a 2nd place overall finish.

Having spent more than a decade racing in the Cup Series, he can be called a veteran of the sport and he does know what it takes to clinch the championship. Perhaps a better playoff showing would see him overcome the barriers he faced last season and who knows HMS might have another Championship trophy in their hands.

Retirement for Larson should be the talk of the next decade. Meanwhile, let us look forward to another successful season by the HMS No.5.

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