Kyle Larson elaborates on comments he wanted to ‘embarrass’ Xfinity Series field

Kyle Larson raised some eyebrows this week when he said that he wanted to ’embarrass’ NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers with his performances at that level. His reasoning was in question at the time.

But the driver of the No. 5 car opened up on that in an interview on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio this week. He explained.

“When I was a full-time Xfinity guy I loved that the Cup Series, or when Cup guys would run, and they got to run every single week… it really pushed me to become a better racecar driver, because I could compare myself to them,” Larson said. “I could race behind them, learn from guys like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth and whoever else. I even raced against Jimmie Johnson in an Xfinity race.

“So I felt like because of that, once Xfinity guys, or even back before me, whatever Busch series or whatever, when they came to Cup, they were ready for Cup because they were competing with Cup guys every Saturday and beating them or getting beat. But regardless they were learning.”

With the changes to the Xfinity Series and the rules around how often drivers can compete in different levels of the sport, some of that has been lost. So when Larson goes back down a level, he wants to truly bring it.

That’s how he learned. It’s an effective way to do so.

“Well now you don’t get that, so Xfinity guys, I don’t feel like are as good as they once were,” Larson said. “And definitely not as prepared for Cup as they once were. I think that’s why you see a guy like Ty Gibbs. I really like Ty Gibbs. He’s an Xfinity Series champion, but he’s yet to win a race. I think a lot of that comes from just the limits that NASCAR’s put on.”

Larson laid down the gauntlet in wrapping up his point. He does, in fact, want to embarrass the Xfinity Series drivers.

But for a reason. It makes the sport better.

“With that being said, I, when I run Xfinity, I want to smash the field just so they can see where the bar is really at,” Larson said. “Because they have no clue when they’re just racing with each other every week. They might think they’re good and think they’re ready and all of that. But until you get out there with a Cup Series guy, you just don’t know.

“So I like going out there and leading races by 10 to almost 17 seconds at Homestead and just showing them that, ‘Hey, you guys are doing good but you have a lot of work to do if you want to be ready for the Cup Series.’”

The post Kyle Larson elaborates on comments he wanted to ‘embarrass’ Xfinity Series field appeared first on On3.