“I dont’ feel like it”: Kyle Larson reveals why short track racing remains a struggle for him

Kyle Larson broke down his struggles at short track racing on the latest episode of Stacking Pennies podcast. The Hendrick Motorsports driver explained how he ends up overdriving and burns through his tires as a result.

Despite his comments, Larson has had a fairly decent record at short tracks. At Martinsville, he has consistently finished among the top-10 since 2022. His last three outings were top-5 finishes as well, including a race win in 2023.

The same year, he also won at another short track, Darlington Speedway. However, Larson has struggled on the track this year. In the playoff opener, he began among the top-5 but fell back to a P20 finish by race end. He had a disappointing playoff race at Bristol as well, finishing five laps down in 37th.

"Where I struggle on the short tracks is, I for one, I'm, even though I don't feel like it, I'm probably overdriving.....I feel like the short guys who grew up late model racing and like you guys make up all your time like deselling at a really quick rate without being over the limit of the tire. And that's where I'm like I really struggle with the short track," Larson said via Youtube/NASCAR

"Like, where's the center of the corner?....Like, that's the feel I don't really have on short tracks," he added.

Kyle Larson enters the final Round of 12 race third in the playoff standings. He's 54 points to the good and will advance to the next round due on his points tally. Notably, Martinsville will be Larson's final race before the championship finale.

After a middling stretch of mid-pack finishes in the Round of 16, Larson has finally found his footing in the second playoff round. He's made two top-10 finishes and has led laps at New Hampshire and Kansas.

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Kyle Larson admits to slump after Indy-Charlotte disaster

On the same episode of Stacking Pennies, Kyle Larson reflected on the performance dip after his 'choke-up' in the Indy-Charlotte double attempt. He noted that the failure didn't shake his confidence, but has somehow affected his results since then.

"You know, looking at the results since then, it'd be hard to argue that it didn't, even though I wouldn't necessarily say I felt any lack of confidence. I don't know if it was circumstantial, but like, I mean, my NASCAR stuff took a dip, my sprint car racing took a dip. So it's hard to argue against it,” he said. [58:40 onwards]

Kyle Larson mentioned how he was 'crushing' it before the ill-fated double attempt, having led 900 laps in NASCAR and a win in more than half his sprint car races. The HMS driver has previously stated that he doesn't have any more plans to attempt the 1,100-miler.