Dale Earnhardt Jr. expects Kyle Larson to do big things this weekend as he participates in the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600. On this week’s episode of Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt shared his thoughts on how Larson will do in his Indy 500 debut.
“I hope he goes and wins,” Earnhardt said before saying he thinks he can win the Indy 500. “We’ll be watching and wishing the best for Kyle Larson as he goes through that.”
Last weekend, Larson qualified for the Indy 500 and then flew to North Wilkesboro to compete in the NASCAR All-Star Race on the same day. Earnhardt said it was a “big deal” for Larson to do that but also brought up that Bobby Allison qualified for the Indy 500 before flying himself to Nashville to run fourth in the NASCAR Cup race.
“It’s awesome. Not only is Kyle doing some amazing things out there in the motorsports world and putting not only IndyCar but NASCAR as well right on the front page, it’s good to be able to re-live some of the other doubles that have happened in the past,” Earnhardt said.
Kyle Larson looks back at ‘memorable’ Sunday
Along with qualifying fifth in the Indy 500, Larson finished fourth in the NASCAR All-Star race. This week, Larson talked about Sunday being long but unforgettable.
“Yeah, it was a long day but a memorable one, for sure,” Larson said on NASCAR Race Hub Monday. “I was proud of everything that we’ve been able to accomplish here at the [Indianapolis Motor] Speedway and then also proud of the way we executed our race at North Wilkesboro. You know, myself not being there for practice, never being on that racetrack before with the repave — all that I felt like I was able to get up to speed fairly quickly and our team put ourselves in the best position that we possibly could to win the race.”
Larson has put together a strong NASCAR career, but a strong finish in the Indy 500 would get him a step closer to being a legendary motorsports star. In a 2021 interview with NBC Sports (per NASCAR.com), Larson said, “I don’t want to be just referenced as the greatest NASCAR driver of all time or the greatest sprint car driver of all time, I want to be known as somebody who could climb into all different types of cars and be great at what they do.”
On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this story.
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