Larson gets Ganassi's OK to run Knoxville Nationals

Chip Ganassi never ran a sprinter in his racing career, but the veteran owner became the toast of the sprint car world when he told Kyle Larson he could run in Saturday night's Knoxville Nationals.

Larson, who won Wednesday night's preliminary feature and locked himself into the prestigious A Main at the legendary half-mile dirt track, said afterwards he was going to beg his NASCAR owner to let him run the winged sprint car despite the fact he starts ninth in Sunday's Pure Michigan 400 and sits third in the point standings.

"I could have not let him run but who is that going to make happy?" Ganassi said Friday evening. "It's a helluva risk but it's also what racing is all about."

Larson said he made his pitch to Ganassi during a ride to the airport after Thursday's unveiling of Chevy's 2018 Cup car, the Camaro ZL1.

"I didn’t know [Chip] was going to be in Detroit yesterday with us as a part of the unveiling of the 2018 Chevy Camaro ZL1, so that was cool, but I rode back with him to the airport," he explained. "We talked about it a little bit. He voiced his concerns about it, but I think more than me asking, I feel like Steve Lauletta (president of Chip Ganassi Racing) and John Olguin (Ganassi senior vice president of marketing and communications) at our race shop probably had the most impact probably on me being able to run, so, got to thank them, but ultimately, it’s all Chip’s decision.

"I know my fans really appreciate it. All my sprint car fans and NASCAR fans, so Chip is a hero today and this weekend. I appreciate it.”

Larson, who already owns a pair of victories in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series, is shooting for his third consecutive win at MIS in Ganassi's Target Chevrolet.

Facebook and Twitter pages around the country were blowing up with the news and Ganassi admitted he'd picked up some new Twitter followers.

"The kid has a lot of fans so it sounds like they're pretty happy," said Ganassi, who has allowed the 25-year-old open wheel phenom to run sprinters and midgets all summer – and he's already got seven sprint wins.

"My deal with Chip is I can’t race a sprint car or midget or anything really the night before I’m on track," Larson said. "So I couldn’t have raced [Thursday] night in Knoxville and practiced today that would have been against the contract, but that is why I ran Wednesday because I have to have an off day. That is how it works out and I think it’s fair and I still get to run a lot of races.

"So, I’m thankful for Chip to even allow me to do what I get to do right now. It’s especially nice though that he is making an exception for Saturday night.”