“There’s Nowhere to Race”: Kyle Larson Has a Heartbreaking Take on the Miserable State of Racetracks in the United States

Competition is the driving force behind NASCAR’s popularity. Drivers compete against each other and try to beat one another to the checkered flag. Teams compete against each other and try to have the best drivers race for them. Sponsors compete to get the most popular faces to endorse their products. But there is one more sector that competes—the tracks. And Kyle Larson sees a concerning trend developing there.

On David Gravel’s YouTube show, the HMS driver was asked if he was concerned about the number of tracks closing throughout the US. Larson replied, “It’s all across the world I guess. Even being out here in Arizona now, there’s nowhere to race.

There’s no dirt tracks, honestly. Out here it’s just Yuma and that’s—never. Central Arizona, maybe, runs some modified stuff. [Tucson?] I don’t think they ever really race there. They shut down Arizona Speedway, Canyon. Gosh, I wish Arizona Speedway didn’t go anywhere.

“I would love there to be some more dirt tracks out here just for the health of the sport. We have Wild West Shootout being in Arizona so… I don’t know, I think a lot of it had to do with taxes and stuff. Property taxes going way up after COVID. I don’t know but it’s definitely scary that a lot of these tracks have shut down.”

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It definitely is a worrying statistic. And Larson is not the first driver to point it out. Dale Earnhardt Jr is among the notable personalities who have taken note of this.

Dale Jr & Kyle Larson are the saviors(?)

2022 saw Dale Jr continue his attempts at reviving dying formats, series, and tracks. His participation at the South Carolina 400—a race he had run numerous times in the 90s—generated a lot of positive response.

This was not the first time either that the JR Motorsports owner did something about it. Both Larson and Dale Jr have been trying for years to save dying tracks and formats. So much so that Kenny Wallace once equated them. He said on his show, “There’s one man right now that is creating a comeback for local asphalt racing and it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr is the new Kyle Larson.

“So Kyle Larson, what he did for dirt racing 3 years ago… I mean they were packing them in everybody had to watch Kyle Larson run dirt… And he just kept setting the bar higher and higher. And he took dirt racing through the roof.

“Now I’m so excited that my dear friend, Dale Earnhardt Jr is doing that with asphalt racing late model stocks in the South, around the Charlotte area, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia,” Wallace added as he complimented the pair.

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There’s only so much that two people can do to save racing. More drivers, teams, and organizations will need to band together and do their part.