Larson didn't think he'd make it to the Knoxville Nationals. Hendrick Motorsports had other ideas.

Kyle Larson was resigned to not racing the Knoxville Nationals, but the support from Hendrick Motorsports made it happen.

Larson finished sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night and immediately jogged off pit road to begin the trek. Not only did he make it to the event in Knoxville, which had been heavily delayed due to weather, but he claimed his fourth victory in one of dirt racing’s biggest events.

It was the latest example of how Larson, a two-time NASCAR champion with the organization, has Hendrick Motorsports' backing to race both stock cars and on dirt. He has routinely done so since joining the company in 2021, and HendrickCars.com even sponsors some of his entries.

“It’s really awesome that they support me and my dirt racing to that sort of magnitude because I’m hired by Hendrick Motorsports to race Cup cars,” Larson said. “I feel like any other race team would probably not care as much to that extent of updating their driver or trying to organize the little fine details that can save you enough time to get there in time. I think Hendrick Motorsports is probably the only team that would maybe go through hoops like that; Spire maybe the only other one, just with [Carson] Hoevar and all he’s into. 

“But Cliff [Daniels] and Jeff Anderews and Jeff Gordon, I think even Rick [Hendrick] likes seeing me race the sprint cars every now and then.”

Daniels was the biggest cheerleader of the effort. Larson had climbed into his No. 5 Chevrolet for the 7:10 p.m. ET start with Knoxville out of his mind because he believed the weather forecast was good enough for them to race at some point. At that time, Larson had no expectations he would be there.

“Even before the race Cliff was like, ‘Man, we got to get you a helicopter and have it ready’ and this and that,” said Larson. “I’m like, ‘No, the forecast looks too good. I’m not going to make it. I don’t need a helicopter.’ Then he was still going like, ‘No, we need to have a plan, we need to do it.’ I was like, ‘Dude, it’s not going to work. It’s not going to happen.’ 

“So they were all into it more than I was, which was crazy.”

It was Daniels, under a caution late in the race, who told Larson the event was still delayed. Larson was both surprised and suddenly a bit excited, even though he still didn’t know how far along the program in Knoxville had progressed.

“And I didn’t really want to ask any questions, either, because I didn’t want it to seem like I wasn’t focused or had lost focus on the NASCAR race because I was still trying to get the best finish possible for our team after the struggles we’ve been going through,” he said.

“So I was going to try to finish the race as well as we could, and then see what happened. Immediately after the checkered flag, he told me they were still delayed, and I was thankfully excused from media and able to get out of there as fast as possible.”

It might have been a once-in-a-lifetime series of events for the double to happen. Larson isn't taking that for granted, given his experience over two years trying to make the Indianapolis-to-Charlotte double happen but being interrupted by weather.

“I’m super thankful,” Larson said. “I’m much more thoughtful of my Cup duties these days than I used to be, but a few years ago, I had no problem racing the night before a NASCAR race, and they knew I was going to get back at 4 a.m. or even later, and they were always OK with it. They’ve never once told me ‘No, you shouldn’t do that,’ or ‘Your focus is getting off.’ 

“So, it means a lot to me that they trust me and trust what I’ve got going on in the sprint cars, as well as trusting I’m still focused on the NASCAR stuff.”