While a 10th-place finish in Friday night’s World of Outlaws Knoxville Invitational didn’t produce a statistical victory, Kyle Larson wrote the first chapter of a hopeful career redemption story.
Driving his No. 57 Kyle Larson Racing machine, Larson finished nearly 10.5-seconds off the pace to race winner David Gravel — who won last year’s Knoxville Nationals.
However, after the whirlwind last few weeks, making the main and finishing in the top-half of the finishing order had to feel like a breath of fresh air for Larson.
Notable drivers who finished behind Larson in the main included: Shane Stewart (16th), Rico Abreu (20th) and Kraig Kinser (22nd).
Retired NASCAR star Kasey Kahne also made his return to the track — his first race since a horrible crash at Williams Grove in 2019 — but failed to make the main.
The 27-year old Larson completed necessary sensitivity training in order to be reinstated by the World of Outlaws, Larson has yet to be reinstated by NASCAR.
Larson was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR, iRacing and the World of Outlaws after uttering a racial slur in an iRacing event last month. Following his major NASCAR sponsors cutting ties with the racer, Chip Ganassi Racing released Larson.
Matt Kenseth has been named as Larson’s replacement for the remainder of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season in the No. 42 car.
2 Responses
my comment is this Mike Helton and his gang of cronies are the root cause of Nascar,s slow demise ;; Kyle Larson,s dumb comment to me is a non issue ;; Chip Gannasi is an asshole along with every person and company that basically threw Kyle under the bus on this deal ;; I hope someone like Stewart hires Kyle and he come back and wins the cup
Ain’t going to happen. NASCAR drivers KNOW what they’re signing up for when entering the spotlight as a driver! I agree that it is a harsh punishment but that is what it requires. It is simply BAD BUSINESS for major corporations to be associated with some spoiled millionaire who gets paid those millions to “play”. Joe Gibbs Racing is also one of those big corporations! The 19 die hard Larson fans are just mad because he WAS their favorite driver. Corporate America is not going to back some fool who cannot bite their tongue and says the VERY WORST ,non p.c. word a spoiled white boy could possibly say! This is called CAPITALISM and the alternative is communism. If you pick the latter maybe you should move…or DEAL with it and get over it already. – Sincerely, A very white redneck(I even know better!)