Larson responds to critics of his sprint car comments

Fear not, Kyle Larson fans: He isn’t planning on leaving NASCAR anytime soon.

Earlier this week on Twitter, the World of Outlaws account asked Larson, who was doing a Q&A, when he was going to compete there full-time. Larson, of course, is a dirt racing lover and still enjoys running sprint cars.

So when Larson responded to the tweet “before I’m 40” it brought on a bit of backlash.

One Twitter user accused him of not loving NASCAR and said he should leave now. Others might not have realized that Larson doesn’t turn 40 for quite a while.

In fact, Larson only turns 26 years old next month. This season is his fifth full year in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

“I think some people aren’t quite as open-minded, maybe,” Larson said Friday of the misunderstanding about his passion for both disciplines. “It’s like they read it as if I said in two years from now I wanted to do it. I mean, 15 years from now that would put me 20 years in Cup. So, that’s a long time.

“I think Jeff Gordon spent about that much time in the sport, but I don’t know, maybe I don’t do the best job in the world of talking about how much I love NASCAR as much as I do sprint cars. But I do. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love NASCAR racing.”

Larson explained that he talks a lot about sprint cars to open people up to that world since he believes it’s a great form of racing.

Larson races in this year's Chili Bowl. (Image by Boyd Adams)

“I just want fans to be fans of motorsports, not just NASCAR and not just sprint cars,” he said. “I would like to see everybody just enjoy all of racing, and I think that’s what I do. Maybe I don’t do a good job at it sometimes, but I enjoy racing all types of vehicles. Most fans get it, but some fans aren’t quite open-minded enough.”

Most recently, Larson competed in five night nights of Ohio Sprint Speedweek, winning twice.

Allowed to run 25 sprint car races a year, Larson said the quarter-mile dirt track being built inside Turn 3 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be on his list for later this year.