“Everything about tonight was all self-conflicted”: Kyle Larson reflects after his crash in the 2024 Chili Bowl Nationals

Kyle Larson recently reflected on his high-spirited attempt to do a "Dirt Double" which did not go as per the plan for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Larson kicked his 2024 season off with a pre-NASCAR sprint car racing experience. The 31-year-old, on Thursday, competed at Vado Speedway Park for the Wild West Shootout in Kevin Rumley’s Dirt Late Model. Larson then flew straight to Tulsa to compete in the coveted Chili Bowl race, completing his "dirt double."

Following a lackluster outing in Vado, Thursday night's qualification race at SageNet Center proved to be yet another tumultuous journey for Larson, ending his pursuit with a 24th-place finish in the Chili Bowl Nationals. The troubles began early for him in the heat race, where he drew a fifth-place starting position.

Positioned in the middle of the pack, Kyle Larson navigated through the chaos of the first lap, narrowly avoiding incidents involving Shayle Bade and Joe Perry. However, the challenges persisted as he faced a poor restart, falling back through the pack and eventually crashing with Christopher Townsend after being bumped from behind.

Reflecting on the night, Larson acknowledged the self-inflicted nature of his struggles. Speaking to Matt Weaver, the former Cup Series champion stated:

"Oh it was everything about tonight was all self-conflicted. Yes, I could have done something. He [Townsend] was just a kind of mess for me."

"I just wasn’t quite comfortable, kind of saw the first few laps, new energy straight, not running hard enough. Got myself in bad spots and ultimately fell back and then just trying to get aggressive", Kyle Larson added.

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Kyle Larson on racing in Australia in the future

Despite the early setbacks, Larson displayed resilience by winning his C-Main and then delivering a strong performance in B-Main.

However, in the A-Main, with seven laps remaining, Larson attempted to make a move forward and was involved in the incident with Christopher Townsend. Reflecting on the flip, the Hendrick Motorsports driver said, via the aforementioned source:

"I just made contact with that guy on exit two and we both went flipping. Just had a grind from there and thought I was gonna have an okay night. Needed some caution in the feature."

“Just a bummer on my part. Making a lot of mistakes, mostly from not being like comfortable. I wish I could be here all week, till Sunday and get to race the champions. Yeah, just be comfortable, against the curb here on a flat track stuff like that. Just kind of put myself in a hole and harder to recover."

When asked about his plans of returning to the Tulsa Shootout anytime soon, Larson stated:

"I don't know. I mean, it's just so far away. I definitely wanna go to Australia. There's still a lot to work out there. It just takes a lot of money and a lot of organising and logistics and stuff... I don't know many people down there.

"Like I said, it takes support," he said. "Financially and everything to make it kind of work. Hopefully we can figure that out. That'd be a lot of fun to go down there."

Kyle Larson will kick off his NASCAR season piloting the Hendrick Motorsports No.5 Chevrolet in the Daytona 500 race. Larson is aiming to complete yet another "Double" this season when he attempts to drive in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 races on the same weekend.