Not everyone is particularly fond of Kyle Larson’s strong performance in the Bristol Night Race on Saturday.
At Bristol, Larson led 462 of 500 laps in a race that witnessed very little tire fall-off and only eight lead changes. With a lengthy X post on Tuesday, the 2021 Cup Series winner expressed his dissatisfaction with the crowd response and urged fans to “temper your expectations” when it comes to short track racing with the Next Gen car.
During a visit on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday, Larson went into additional detail about his social media response. Larson stated that the lack of tire wear at Bristol is not the fault of Goodyear or NASCAR. He continued by saying that no one knows how to improve short track racing a Next Generation vehicle. .
“I think it’s frustration,” Larson said. “I was simply annoyed, but I don’t really get on social media anymore. A lot of people in the industry assume that race is bad when a car leads 462 laps without further explanation. “Tyre wear, this, that, blah, blah, blah” is what’s not present. It seems like people forget about the past because there hasn’t been any tire wear at Bristol in the last ten races. Everyone has the answers and everything, and they’re all eager to place the blame on Goodyear.
“No one knows the solutions. Goodyear does not possess the solution. Regarding their vehicle and the reason it performs poorly in traffic, NASCAR is at a loss for answers. We don’t have the answers either—the drivers, the teams, the engineers. It’s difficult to have beliefs, and it’s especially difficult when those beliefs are unsupported by facts.
It’s just annoying, and I’m not even trying to defend our impressive run. In a way, I’m attempting to defend both our sport and Goodyear since they receive such a harsh press every week as if they are the reason why our racing is so awful. They are not the problem.
Kyle Larson delivers a fantastic show in Bristol
With a 7.1-second victory margin, Larson achieved the third-most dominant Bristol victory in history. The 2024 Bass Pro Shops Night Race, along with the 2023 Bristol Dirt and the 2022 spring Martinsville, is the race with the fewest vehicles pacing the field in the Next Gen car era with just four leaders.
Drivers were posting identical lap times, making it difficult to pass because the tyres weren’t wearing as much as they had in the spring. All except Larson, who was obviously the driver of the automobile all night.