Kyle Larson attempted to become the second driver in NASCAR national series history to win the Truck Series race, the Xfinity Series race, and the Cup Series race at the same track on a single weekend this past weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Larson overcame a spin to win the Truck Series race on Friday night, and he won Sunday's Cup Series race after a late pass on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman. But he was unable to win Saturday's Xfinity Series event.
He had opened up a 16-second lead before a late spin by Taylor Gray brought out the caution flag, leading to a restart during which Larson was hit from behind by Sam Mayer. That contact led to the loss of several spots, and he had to settle for fourth place.
The ensuing outrage highlights a major double standard.
Back in the day, Kyle Busch would always compete in the yearly maximum allowable total of Truck Series races and Xfinity Series races for a driver with his experience in the Cup Series. Many times, that involved running all three races on a single weekend.
He is the only driver to pull off a tripleheader sweep, and he has done it twice. He pulled it off at Bristol Motor Speedway in both 2010 and 2017.
When Busch was doing it, it was supposedly bad for the sport. All he ever got was criticized for "stealing candy from the kids", and NASCAR was criticized for allowing "full-time Cup drivers" (meaning Busch; everybody else was totally cool) to compete in those events, because it supposedly took away the opportunity for some of the up-and-coming drivers to win.
Bob Pockrass' ESPN headline at the time? "Latest Bristol sweep drives Kyle Busch haters crazy". That just about sums it up, and then some.
But when Larson does it, Mayer and Gray get nothing but nonstop hate on social media after the fact. Because for Larson, everyone is just supposed to sit back, enjoy greatness, not get in his way, and let him win. Now, all of a sudden, winning at NASCAR's second and third highest levels is an incredible achievement.
There is no debating Larson's talent. That's not the issue here. But the reality of it is that nobody ever had any issue with Busch doing what he did. The reality of it is that fans just didn't like Kyle Busch, and they didn't like Kyle Busch winning.
Because clearly there is a new set of rules in place for Larson, who, just like Busch, is attempting the feat at the prime of his career.
Now those same fans don't like Larson losing, and anybody responsible for making that happen apparently deserves all the keyboard warrior hate the NASCAR community can possibly muster up on social media.
Otherwise, Larson would be ridiculed for his tripleheader sweep attempt like Busch always was, and the nasty comments toward Mayer and Gray would either be nonexistent or flipped to total praise for preventing yet another Cup champion from "stealing candy from the babies" and limiting the opportunities for some of the younger guys.
Isn't that how this works?
The double standard is absolutely crazy, and yet it's so obvious that it's almost laughable more than anything.
Larson is set to make another attempt at the rare feat at Bristol himself in a couple weeks, competing in the Truck Series race on Friday, April 11, the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, April 12, and the Cup Series race on Sunday, April 13.