NASCAR: Kyle Larson’s Success Highlights Why Today’s Soft-Spoken Drivers Are Just As Good As Yesterday’s “Speak Their Mind” Drivers
By Kayla Gipson
After Kyle Larson’s victory at Michigan last weekend, fans were not happy. However, it wasn’t about what happened on the race track. It was about an article that was written.
On Monday, June 19th, USA Today sports tweeted out a link to a story that was a columnist take on the race titled “Kyle Larson’s win at Michigan highlights NASCAR’s lack of outsize personalities“.
As many did, I took a glance at the article to figure out why it was making everyone upset. The author critiqued NASCAR and its stars throughout the whole article for not being “edgy enough” or the disliking other drivers. He said that, but it was obvious that he didn’t watch the Xfinity race the day before.
Everyone knows that the perhaps the most fierce rivalry in NASCAR right now is between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch. That was put on display in the Xfinity race. On a restart, Busch and Keselowski restarted 1st and 2nd. Busch jumped out in front of Keselowski. The two made contact not too long after that, and it sent Busch spinning in the grass.
It’s not just Busch and Keselowski, either. It also includes their teammates. The past three years, especially during the playoffs, the drivers of the of Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske teams have had a rivalry. There are times when one team dominates all the races in the playoffs, and other times when the teams’ drivers are very close in the points standings. You also can’t forget all the incidents that have happened over the past few years between the drivers of Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske.
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On Tuesday, NBC NASCAR America discussed this topic. NASCAR America analyst and former NASCAR driver Jeff Burton said on the Tuesday show that he thinks there cannot be rivalries without competition. He is absolutely correct.
Back to the USA Today story. He didn’t touch on the rivalry between Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing. While it’s no secret that both teams are struggling, which is why the rivalry is not as noticeable this year, that rivalry is definitely still there, as referenced above.
The author even mentioned how the young drivers don’t like to express their opinion. Honestly, every driver should just be themselves. If the young guys don’t want to express their opinion like drivers like Tony Stewart used to, that is fine. There has to be equal balance anyways. We have Kyle Busch as the out-spoken one and Kyle Larson as the calm and relaxed one, with both doing very well in the sport.
However, do I think the young drivers are afraid to say their own opinion because they might get in trouble with sponsors or NASCAR? Yes, absolutely.
It’s just the world we live in. If something is misinterpreted or is said out of context, someone will get upset. Everyone has seen an example of the backlash from that happening.
Last month after the Coco-Cola 600 is the perfect example. Kyle Busch came into the media center after the race and just gave the media a one-line answer after Austin Dillon won the race ahead of him.
Everyone was complaining that his response was not right and that he should be fined. Now here we are a month later with taking about a writer who just wrote that there should be more outspoken drivers.
Larson got the last laugh, however. On top of the Michigan win, he also won three dirt races this past week and got the pole for Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, and he is still the leader of the championship standings.
Next: NASCAR: Post-Race Grades From Sonoma
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