Kyle Larson may be a NASCAR Cup Series champion, but he has an absolute love for dirt racing, and I think we can say without a doubt that he is a true dirt racing expert. That being said, Larson doesn’t hide his frustrations about NASCAR’s Food City Dirt Race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend.
This past week, Stewart Friesen tested out the Next Gen car on Bristol’s dirt surface, and in the test, NASCAR tried running the car with a mesh screen in place of the standard windshield. While following the test, NASCAR says they are open to trying something like this in the future, they opted to go with the windshield this year so they could do more safety testing on the car without the windshield.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion stopped by SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday and he feels like if NASCAR is keeping the windshields on the cars for the dirt race, that this race is simply a waste of everyone’s time.
“I guess the way I look at it, if we’re not going to take the windshields out, then why are we racing on dirt? We just shouldn’t race on dirt if we’re not going to take the windshields out, actually have a dirt race with moisture in the track and being able to produce a real dirt race,” Larson stated with no hesitation. “I feel like we’re just wasting everybody’s time a little bit and not giving the fans and competitors what we all deserve.”
While Larson feels that if NASCAR is going to utilize dirt racing in the future, the windshields should be scrapped from the cars, Larson is also salty about throwing dirt on Bristol Motor Speedway to begin with.
“In my opinion, if we’re not going to take the windshields out, we might as well never put dirt on Bristol again,” Larson explained. “Which, I’m all for not putting dirt on Bristol — whether we have windshields or not — I think the racing at Bristol is amazing just as normal.”
Larson hopes that if NASCAR intends to do more dirt racing in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2023, that they come up with a system where the windshield is no more for the event.
“I don’t know, who knows. We can get through this year, and if they put the dirt on the track again, like they can get a head start, on trying to design something to where we cannot have windshields — You know, welding bars or do something,” Larson explained. “Like the [dirt] late models I run, we don’t have windshields, but we have these massive bars that are welded in in front of us. It’s kind of like a rock screen. There is not a spindle, or a heavy piece of car that is going to come through that. It is extremely heavy duty.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t weld in something like that or clamp in bars that are temporary, whatever it may be. I definitely think there is a way to run the windshields it’s just — I understand the safety side of NASCAR and why they don’t. Our racecars are really safe, but like I said, you’re not going to have a true dirt race with windshields. So, I feel like it’s kind of lame.”
Strong words from Larson, but at the same time, you expect strong words from someone like him, who has true passion when it comes to dirt racing. At the end of the day, Larson simply wants NASCAR to run a true dirt race and put on as good of a show as possible for the fans in attendance.
Here is the full spot from Larson’s interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:
TUNE IN ALERT: An outspoken Kyle Larson questions #NASCAR’s decision to use windshields in the #FoodCityDirtRace at @BMSupdates.
Hear his comments in FULL tonight at 8:30 PM ET on #DialedIn w/ @ClaireBLang. pic.twitter.com/OAxXW21bVd
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) April 13, 2022
