Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Who cares if somebody thinks Larson is the greatest driver in the world. He's on one of the biggest stages in auto racing giving back to the sport we all love. Not to mention the spotlight it brings to sprint car racing when he mentions it or races at a local track. I just dont understand the negativy for the guy stemming from people thinking he's great. Would you rather him be the next Jeff Gordon and not give anything back to the sport?

By any other standard he had a very good career in NASCAR but was always judged in comparison to his father.  He's a down to earth outspoken guy who didn't always fit the corporate mold.  My fondness for Sprint Cars doesn't obligate me to hate on NASCAR or dislike Jr.  I come from a family of car owners so was never in awe of any driver.  Don't bent our stuff and you'll be back next week.  I am a Jr. fan to that extent.

Stan Meissner

The best part of "Junebug" ran down his Daddy's leg.   So, the guy won a few races.  I get that he didn't ask for all the praise that he received, that was being a product of his old man.  Most popular driver umpteen years?  Give me a friggin break.  The collective brain cells of his fans wouldn't equal one of a normal man.  His fans are who made me despise this guy, again, not his fault.  His fans have got to be the most ridiculous people anywhere.  Was at Las Vegas, my last NASCAR race, in 2004.  The goofs sitting next to me were Jr. fans.  Jr had a bad day and was basically using the remaining 3/4's of the race as practice, continually entering and leaving the track.  These people made such fools of themselves EVERY time Jr. came back on the track like they were seeing GOD.  I was disgusted, and made me hate him even more.  AGAIN, not his fault.   Goodbye NASCAR, you are gonna lose many thousands of toothless wonders now....Who cares

Great post.

He actually said in Speed Sport News that he'd like to do tv work when he retires???? Ya kiddin me?  He actually said that.  Him in the tv booth doing color.  Yeah, that'd be a hoot. 

Someone above wrote "Retarded fans"---good description of a fair percentage of them

AND "Hall of Fame resume", again, ya kiddin me?  Without Napscar's trying their damndnest to make him a star, just never happened exept with his dad's fans.  Don't tell me that many many official calls on the track that should have gone against him, most were in his favor.  Napscar needed him to be a star and never happened.  And, I like the guy, a real decent down to earth person.  I'm sure he's great with fans too. 

I quit watching Nascar after the 10th time I heard an announcer in the booth or in the pits call Damica Nascar's future star.  If there isn't hundreds of sprint car, modified stars and late model stars that with the extraordinary push she got, would have been finishing races in the top ten regularly and some top 5s and a few wins. 

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

The DW lovefest wore thin on me (although still not crossing the "boogity, boogity, boogity" threshold level of making the hair on my back stand straight up). Like others, I grew to like Jr. through the years. He always owned-up to being the cause of a wreck when it was his fault, and to my knowledge anyway, never stooped to the "cue-ball headed fool" comment level or the disrespect Kurt Busch showed Dr. Jerry Punch years ago. He always carried himself with class. and if you could pick one of the those guys to go hang out with and have a beer, most of us would have probably picked him. I think he did this now in part due to health (future health) reasons too. Plus, if I had just gotten married to a woman that smoking hot, I'd probably bail on my day job too!

As talented...Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliot and Erick Jones with Blaney and Elliot in cup full time less than two years and Jones first year. There 3 drivers.

damn man you have to be called retarded if you dont think larson is moses.

every respective driver has talent in some form but you people swing on this dude hard cause why

he won a damn non wing race at kokomo.... he hasnt won a championship in anything but a gokart or tq and you got him down as moses... can he at least win a nationals or a kings royal or perhaps a race in pa before you go more ham on this dude?

he has now won a few damn cup races.....a few people thats it so cmon

i hear he is so good, he is so fast, he is so talented and yet his list of wins are a few but im retarded 

you cant defend his record of ..... not much,but keep defending cause its your guy i guess .

someone post a list of his wins and then i will post 50 more winning drivers list and then shut up

Your list of drivers that showed up at eldora for first time ever running the place and manage to sweep 3 divisions will be a short list. That was enough for me. 

He has won a championship. 2012 K&N Pro East Series.

I'm inclined to say he hasn't won another championship because he simply hasn't run a full schedule with a series other than Nascar. You know, too busy climbing the ranks.

How about you find a driver his age or under that has more wins in as many different cars. I'm interested to see the list you come up with.

K & N Pro Series East title!  Anyone with his funding, car, crew, is going to jump into that series and dominate.  How many cars run all the races in that series anyway,  K & N Pro Series East, bah humbug, that's nothing and to say how great he is based on that, that's your argument!  Pretty weak.  Sure, good guy and everything but in the Cup series, average top 15 driver. 

 Lawlessness and liberalism equals Hell.  NY City, 
Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Minnepolis, etc. We saw it. 
Burning hundreds of buildings, a thousand assaults and 
dozens of murders. Getting worser and worser.

Seems like he should be 15th in points then?   

I have an idea. Before we bore into Kyle's stats (which are very impressive) why don't you post your own stats on here so we can compare what you've done compared to Larson? This could be fun.....

wait he might have won a iracing race guys lets throw that in okay.

lets make america great again with kyle

Then hate his fans, not him. That's not his fault. I'm not a fan of Jr. or nascar for that matter but he always seemed like a soft-spoken, down to earth guy to me especially considering the pedestal he was put on. He's an above average driver that's won a few big races, nothing more nothing less. I think it's a wise decision for him to retire. 

A

I wouldn't be classified as a Dale Jr fan, but I do like the guy. I sure wouldn't have wanted to follow in the footsteps he had to follow in,  but in the same breath Dale Sr was his dad, and like all boys we love our fathers. There are film clips of Dale Jr as a little boy, hanging as near his dad as he can at the race track. Looking at his father and wanting as much attention from him as he could get. A wide eyed freckle faced kid, adoring his dad and the moment. It's easy to see that in the clips. And Dale Sr of course being pulled a dozen different directions and only able to give so much time to his young son. As Jr became of racing age its easy to see from the clips how much happiness both Jr and Sr were able to enjoy from Jr's accomplishments. Did those measure up to his Dad's.....no, but that didn't seem to matter. The pride showed through. Besides, who does measure up to Dale Sr? We fans lose parents, too, and even children. So we can relate to the grief the professional racer and their families go through. It's at those moments that we have common ground with those we look up to and even idolize. I hope he thouroughly enjoys his retirement!

Larson was the KWS champ in 2010 @ age of 18. 

I'm always blown away how negative people can be towards such an awesome sport.  JR isn't the greatest driver ever to walk NASCAR but he is far from talentless.  How many drivers have come along over the years with hype train running full speed only to have the sport chew them up and spit them out with nothing to show for it?  26 wins is pretty impressive in my books, especially when you look at the years he spent toiling away at DEI with subpar equipment after his dad passed.  I wish him well.

As for Larson, he seems to finally have cup cars figured out.  People forget how incredibly fast he climbed the ladder and got into NASCAR's top step.  It is extremely rare that we see race winners during their first couple of years.  Remember how much equipment Jeff Gordon tore up before he figured things out?  Like it or not, Larson along with the other young guns mentioned are the future and Kyle winning a championship is only a matter of time IMO.  I'm cheering for him.

Jr. could not make a pimple on his dad's butt. The fans love him because his dad was the most popular driver nascar has ever had.  People scream his name and hold 3 fingers in the air to this day. I think he lost the drive to be a champion. 

Well, here we go--You asked for it:

1. Hasn't won Knoxville yet--over 7 billion people on earth haven't won Knoxville--he's been there 3 times.  Three VERY impressive showings under the circumstances of each of the three trips.  First year, wins prelim night and qualifies for A-main.  2nd and 3rd trips--as a part-time hired gun while running asphalt races.  If he hadn't moved up the racing ranks so quickly, he would have been in contention to win multiple times there. (not talking already--talking as a whole throughout his career)

2. "He won a damn non wing race at Kokomo".  He's from California.  And, once again, he moved up through the racing ranks so fast, we never got to even see him leave the mark he could have left on open wheel racing in other regions of the country.

3.  King's Royal?  How many King's Royals has he actually participated in?  I struggle to remember him there at all.  I do however, remember he had a pretty memorable night in his first ever visit to Eldora.  

4.  Hasn't won in PA.  Who cares?  Once again, how many times did he races there?  6?  8?  10?  

5.  Cup race wins?  2 if you want the exact number.  If not for fuel issues and a few mechanical gremlins, likely would have 4 or 5 by now.  No biggie.  He'll get a ton more.   9 runner ups.  He turns 25 years old this summer.  Dale Sr. won his first race at 28 I believe.  Jeff Gordon won his first at 23 and had 2 wins by 24.  

No one said he has surpassed Richard Petty's 200 wins.  No one claims he has more wins than Kinser.  

But if you really don't think he is one of the most talented drivers in the country--and I mean top 2 or 3 in any form of motorsports, please don't comment on this forum again because you clearly don't know what you are watching.