Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson enjoy a little extracurricular racing
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
LOUDON, N.H. — Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson enjoyed some of their biggest racing moments Saturday, prior to heading to the NASCAR Cup Series event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Elliott, racing in Nashville, Tennessee, got to race his father — and beat him — in the SRX series, which pits all-stars and legends from across motorsports in equally prepared cars. Elliott won the event at the Nashville Fairgrounds, with Tony Stewart second and proud father Bill Elliott third.
About 375 miles away, Larson won one of the most prestigious World of Outlaws events, capturing the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway. It was one of the major sprint-car events that had eluded him over the years, and his victory there solidified his status as an elite talent.
There was a time when team owner Rick Hendrick wouldn’t allow his drivers to race in such events, especially the night before a Cup race.
But without practice and qualifying in Cup, in which drivers are showing up and racing most weekends, Hendrick has softened his stance.
He probably needed to in order to sign Larson, who has always thought that other events keep him sharp. Elliott has always wanted to do more racing, and with the less hectic NASCAR schedule, he has found good opportunities to compete.
Hendrick simply reminds his drivers that if they get hurt, they’ll obviously be replaced in the Cup cars. Larson and Elliott appear to run only equipment that they believe will keep them as safe as possible.
Cup drivers more and more need those moments that either take them back to their roots and/or connect them with the fans who follow them. Plus, they both can generate extra income through merchandise sales.
The crowd response at the venues where Elliott and Larson won was deafening, and while they get cheered on the Cup side, winning iconic events does something for the soul.
Elliott joked at New Hampshire that he was "back in reality."
The son of a NASCAR Hall of Famer and likely a Hall of Famer one day himself, he couldn’t hide his excitement about racing his father in that setting.
"It was a lot of fun," Elliott said. "I thought he did a great job. I thought for a minute we were going to be racing for the win."
Racing his father brought back memories of Elliott racing late models with Bill coaching him through a race. Bill still spots for Elliott in Cup events on road courses, where teams often use more than one spotter.
"I literally remember us racing there [at Nashville] in the past, and he was spotting for him and him just wearing me about cleaning the tires off," Elliott said. "We go off into Turn 1, and I see him go straight, and I’m like, ‘Huh.’
"That was a pretty good a-ha moment for me. To have those type of experiences ... was incredible."
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Larson had an incredible moment, too. Eldora had originally scheduled two Kings Royal events — one for Thursday and one for Saturday — to make up for having no race last year. But when rain pummeled the track during the week, it set up a doubleheader Saturday.
After originally planning to race only Thursday and not Saturday, Larson asked for — and received — permission to do both events Saturday. He struggled in the opener, leaving him skeptical about his chances in the nightcap.
"I didn’t think I had a shot to win," he said. "I just was really bad all week and bad there, especially during the day show.
"For us to work really hard and get our car better and go win made it even more special."
Both drivers flew to New Hampshire on Sunday morning, and both seemed ready to race. Larson finished seventh and Elliott 18th, but that didn’t seem to be a byproduct of their Saturday night events.
"I had an opportunity to go race my dad in a live, televised event and us go enjoy a moment we might not ever have a chance to do again," Elliott said.
If practice and qualifying come back, as expected, next year, Elliott and Larson might not get the chance to race in big Saturday night events as often. Yes, there are planes, but going back and forth between events could get dicey.
"I feel great," Larson said Sunday morning at New Hampshire. "I got enough sleep."
Elliott also felt good. He had flown himself from Nashville to Charlotte and then got on Jeff Gordon’s plane to get to New Hampshire.
He said he felt just as he would going into any other Cup race — but buoyed by the thrill of the night before.
"I feel like I normally do on Sunday morning," Elliott said. "Back to reality. All is good. I don’t think anything changes."
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Thinking out loud
The frustrating thing about seeing Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. wreck as the rain fell in the opening laps Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was that it was another one of those "stuff happens" moments for NASCAR.
NASCAR should never have a time when drivers crash because NASCAR didn’t throw the yellow flag in time.
Look at the road-course Cup race at Circuit of the Americas in the rain, where crashes happened because drivers couldn’t see and NASCAR didn’t stop the race early enough.
Just a week earlier at the truck race at Knoxville, NASCAR threw the white flag on the wrong lap during a heat race.
NASCAR also was late throwing a yellow for the stalled truck of Trey Hutchens at Charlotte, resulting in a big crash.
NASCAR has a dedicated group of hard-working people who make these decisions, but the stumbles lately compound the frustration for competitors and fans.
One such incident would elicit the response that humans make mistakes. But the rash of incidents lately is hurting the confidence fans and competitors have in NASCAR's ability to safely officiate events.
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Stat of the day
Aric Almirola’s victory Sunday at New Hampshire was just his third top-10 finish of 2021.
They said it
"Nobody should have thought that we were going to win. Only our race team is the people that should have thought that or believed that, based on our performance. Especially this year, on the majority of the race tracks, we haven't been a contender to win." — Aric Almirola
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
