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

Why not, let's have another Kyle Larson thread since we haven't had one created in the past 6hrs. Comments below are in response to the question of who wins a race faster, Larson or Erik Jones. You can hear the full clip by clicking on the link. Personally, I think they are just waiting until the topic got brought up in the first place which is smart to a point. No one since the suspension with the exception of Sprint Car fans has said reinstate Kyle Larson, if anything many have wanted to keep him for ourselves. There really has not been anyone prominent until now stating that he should be reinstated (aside from a couple youtubers) and even Kyle himself has not really said anything that he SHOULD be reinstated, just that he would like to return someday.

Whatever the reason, this will make the rumor mill of people (even myself) who feel that SHR interest is there. Interest, but money??? who knows.

https://twitter.com/MatthewMayerCBS/status/1296125705760235525

Sure he'd like to return. So he can prove to everybody that Ganassi doesn't have a great nascrap program. Where is he having the most fun ? I guarantee you its been on the dirt. The ONLY attraction with nascrap is the $$$ for him. He could easily make a good living doing what he's currently doing. The problem is he's never home, I have no clue but I'm not sure that's the life he wants for his family 

I don't think he will have much trouble getting nascar to reinstate him.  Once an owner finds a sponsor willing to stick their necks out, it will get taken care of.  That's my belief.  I don't think there are any sponsors knocking on Kyle's door to put his face on their product right now---that's the real issue.  Might take a while for this one to blow over if it ever does.  

That said, I hope to see him back in Nascar in a top ride someday for his own sake.  There's a lot more $$$$ left on the table for him to make in racing.  Although I would love to see him never leave the dirt again, I would really like to see him earn what he is due in comparison to some of the other "top talents" (cough cough) in the U.S.  I think getting out of that 42 car and into a top-tier team could end up being a lot like what is happening on dirt right now. 

I saw a metric the other day (and I can't find the link to it anymore or I would post it) that judged all of the Nascar teams and drivers.  The metric showed that the 42 car was the 15th ranked ride in Nascar because of lost spots on pit road, fuel mileage, and mechanical issues.  With Kyle behind the wheel, it jumped about 6 or 7 spots to 8th or 9th because he ranked near the top of almost all driver metrics like restarts and cars passed. (in 2017 or 2018 he led all of nascar in cars passed for the season)   With Kenseth behind the wheel, the car/driver combination ranks 23rd.  I wish I could find that link again.  If I do, I will share it.  

Exactly Egras!   SHR is definetly interested, there can be no doubt about it.   Unless there are sponsors willing to sponsor the dude, and I would think the SHR sponsors for the other drivers might have a say too, it really don't friggin' matter what NASCAR does.   Even if Larson and Bell are both there with top tier teams I doubt I'll be watching...

I don't think $$$ is the ONLY attraction. I bet winning at some place like Daytona or Indy gives a guy a warm fuzzy feeling as well.

What exactly is Nascar supposed to do? Kyle did the one thing that you absolutely cannot do in this day & age short of OJ-ing his wife. 

The boy stays on the dirt. Period. 

I think Kyle makes it back to NASCAR.  Everyone gets a second chance in sports if they are good enough.  He picked a bad time to use the n-word but is this really that bad in light of what other athletes have done?  Ray "Killuh" Lewis? Ray "Wife beater" Rice?  Kobe "Rapist" Bryant (lucky he did that before #MeToo).  Those are just a few examples and its easy to come up with more.

If he does get back to NASCAR, will his wife have to stop shotgunning beers in victory lane?

If SHR can't find sponsorship I'm sure Gene Haas  would foot the bill until they can. He did that for Kurt Busch when no sponsors would touch him. I agree that the 42 was not first line equipment and Kyle carried that car on most days. 

Let's see....Kyle Larson makes about $380,000 a weekend racing in Nascar. That'd be a good year racing with the outlaws on a gross revenue side. His cut would be about $190,000. That means he'd have to race two years with the outlaws to make what he does in one race in Nascar.  

Doesn't seem to be a very difficult decision at all.

www.harleytrikes.com

And the plot thickens. Kyle Larson has now formally applied for reinstatement. After comments from Tony, and an article released by the AP that interviewed Larson. I cannot link it at this time but the quote he used was, "I was just ignorant." I'm sure someone can find it & link it but he basically said what my initial impression was. A kid that does not think about social issues & just has one thing on his brain other than family, which is where's the next race

I think they are testing the waters to see what the reaction would be. Clearly there are teams interested and if they can sell a sponsor on a redemption story it might work. Therefore the PR begins, an interview with the AP, leaks about him applying for reinstatement. They'll see how the public reacts and go from there.

Plus he picked the worst time in 50 years to do it with all the riots and civil unrest.

Corporate America won't touch next season until everything blows over.

Only chance he has in 2021 is in Haas CNC house car.

They ought to give him a test in Haas F1 car while they are at it also.

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com

Pretty easy for everyone to keep saying "he should say screw Nascar and just run dirt-----he'll show 'em".........until you run those numbers by everyone.  No way anyone with half a brain doesn't try to get back into Nascar at his age.  

I don't disagree that Haas could foot the bill.  I also know he foot the bill when no one would touch Kurt Busch.  But, Kurt Busch's problems securing a sponsor were not even a pimple on the ass of what Kyle's problems are going to be.  

But, let's say Gene says screw it and throws him a fully-funded ride with the Haas logo on the car.  (which would be cool by the way because I'm a Haas CNC instructor and I could put Kyle Larson posters all over my lab)  Before that happened, Tony and Gene are going to have to sit down with Mobil, Anheuser-Busch, Smithfield, Ford, and every other company giving them checks to make sure they are willing to risk the potential backlash.  Even if it seems silly to some of you, I can assure you the PR depts. of these companies will be contacted before any offers are made or implied.  

I would bet Donald Trump would be in.

Based on $10,000,000 a year he was said to have been making.  If you figure in his t-shirt revenue and all spiffs in the sprint car world he cold make probably make $400,000 a year. Even if it's $500,000  it still would take a year of sprint car racing to make close to what he did in a weekend at Nascar.

Just an estimate but money wise there is absolutely not comparison. I'm sure he had extra spiffs in Nascar that paid pretty well also.

www.harleytrikes.com

Yep

I think that is the biggest hurdle to jump in the situation with the SHR hypothetical. I think some of which will be telling in the coming week now that he has applied for reinstatement. It will be interesting to see if this news is talked about tomorrow on all of the sports shows and see what there talking heads have to say and what the reaction is with it. I think that is the main thing that sponsors & owners will be looking at is how is this received by the public and the people who voice their opinions. Talking to the AP knowing an article is going to come out is a way to get a feel. 

Interest in car owners is definately there but sponsors are the biggest thing and even sponsors already in the organization of the owner. Even though Nascar sponsors seem to be more Business to Business rather than a consumer goods like they used to be, there is still some publicity that businesses do not want to be involved in. Even if your target audience & demographics is not that of the community that the slur was used against, there is a chain reaction to individuals that are in your target audience. I think he has done a number of good things (non race related) ever since the incident happened that were talked about in the article but the 2 best things are getting off of social media and not drawing attention to the things you are doing. Do them geniunely not because you are trying to get a job back speaks volumes. It will be interesting to see in the coming days what is said of him filing for reinstatement and even what the response is on Tony's comments

https://apnews.com/04c329f97046a27b78e936489a0ef84e

People forget that not every cup guy makes the money Larson was. And if he goes back it's not like he'll be making what he was. Obviously it's an easier life and more lucrative,  but what he made before this is irrelevant to the decision. 

Have you considered the possibility that Tony Stewart may be closer to this issue than you and that Tony may have more information than you ?     Perhaps the real issue is that sponsors immediately say "is Kyle still suspended by NASCAR ?" and the conversation ends there and Tony is frustrated.       

There is a reason that Tony chose those words and we should give him the benefit of the doubt.   I think we can learn something from what he said.

I read NASCAR the twitter feed about once a week.   They don't seem to be moving in the direction of forgiving Kyle Larson....      If I saw a "Welcome Back Kyle Larson" tweet I would suspect their Twitter account was hacked.        It appears that NASCAR has moved on and they don't want any of the drama associated with Kyle Larson.