Kyle Larson Unlucky at Tulsa as His Hard-Fought Run Yields a Disappointing Result

It stings harder when your solid efforts turn to water. The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season may have ended two months ago, but Kyle Larson is not relaxing. The Hendrick Motorsports speedster is in the midst of eight straight days of racing between two continents. First, he was in Perth Motorplex and successfully won the largest Australian Sprint Car purse – $100,000. However, jetting back thousands of miles to the States has not yielded the same result yet.

The Tulsa Shootout is currently underway, attracting a humongous crowd of racers from around the globe. Yet among those 1,855 entries, only a few racers would stand out in the sprint car event. One of those seasoned drivers even beat 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson.

Kyle Larson fumbles on his sprint venture

Kyle Larson’s off-NASCAR pursuits are well known – he won the Chili Bowl twice (2020, 2021) and also owns a sprint car racing series known as ‘High Limit Racing’. Besides, Yung Money started on the front row of the 2009 Winged Outlaw main event. Then in 2010, he won a Silver Driller in Outlaw Karts after running from the 25th spot. However, his comeback to the Tulsa Shootout after a 14-year absence just received its first blow. The A-class winged heat race kicked off on January 1st, and Larson found himself battling with a sprint car racing veteran.

Kyle Larson started 7th in this heat race and charged his No. 83K FloRacing vehicle to the front, in second place. However, the No. 81 of Frank Flud was too fast for him. In the final few laps of the race, Flud was seen putting up a massive fight against Larson, which he ultimately won. Flud said after winning: “I knew everybody was trying to stay at the bottom. When that yellow came out, I knew Kyle was in third…I really paid attention to the screen…to where he was picking and choosing his lines. I knew I had enough speed off of 2, to jump up and get in front of him, going into 3.”

This comes amidst another shocking development in the Tulsa Shootout. Among the NASCAR drivers enrolled for the sprint car event, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell (who won the Winged Outlaw division in 2018) were the favorites. But an apparent newbie to the event – 2-time Cup champion Kyle Busch – is already overtaking them. He first won the winged heat race and then in the non-wing class heat race. “I’ll tell you what man these outlaw cars are so much fun because they have so much power in them… So loved it, all is good right now, feels good, want to tune in onto the car a little bit more and be ready for qualifiers when it comes,” Busch said.

However, Kyle Larson achieved a great feat anyway during the past week.

Beating his Double endeavor

This year, the Hendrick Motorsports phenom embarked on a legendary journey. Kyle Larson became only the 5th driver in history to attempt both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. The 1100-mile feat was no cakewalk, as both HMS and Arrow-McLaren worked for 16 months for Larson to do it. However, rain disrupted his Coke 600 start. Yet his sprint car racing journey at the end of 2024 spelled a way bigger feat. He took a 10,140-mile trip to Perth, Australia to run in the inaugural High Limit International Sprint Car race. Larson won the race, cashing in a hefty sum of money.

Then Larson made a 10,816-mile trip back to the United States for the Tulsa Shootout. This is meant for no amateur traveler and racer, as he could still wind up finishing runner-up next to Frank Flud. So Kyle Larson recently reflected how his Double effort was nothing in comparison to sprint car racing schedules. “I think all my dirt racing prior to that prepared me for the May thing. It [The Double] was actually really, really easy. That was the only time of the year I was in one place for a solid week. Flying back and forth for the All-Star Race—and obviously, the 500/600 was hectic with the weather—but I’ve done that a lot with sprint cars and getting back at night for NASCAR the next day. So that was nothing new.”

Evidently, Kyle Larson is juggling time management and race performance. And he is doing a phenomenal job, despite his Tulsa disappointment.