Who Is Kyle Larson?

“I’m sorry, NASCAR, I’m sorry, Daytona, but this is the biggest race I’ve ever won,” he told MavTV, adding an expletive.

His Joking Has Caused Problems

His personal web page says that Larson is “the life of the party and the first to crack a joke.” That has occasionally stirred the pot in the conservative world of NASCAR.

He apologized in 2019 after saying in an interview that a rival team, Hendrick Motorsports, was cheating. He said the remark had been a joke.

“I want to be who I am, and I think fans and media members appreciate that,” he told The Associated Press. “But at the same time, yeah, I think in our sport you have to be a little bit more thoughtful before you speak sometimes.”

In March, Denny Hamlin posted a video of him crashing his shopping cart into Larson’s at the supermarket, making light of a crash incident in a race that day. Chip Ganassi, Larson’s team owner, responded, “I have a building full of people including myself that do not think that’s funny.”

“It was a pretty funny video,” Larson told The Charlotte Observer. “I think some people maybe didn’t see the humor in it.”

Larson had been expected to be a sought-after free agent in the next off-season. There was talk of him moving to Hendrick, perhaps to replace the retiring seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/sports/autoracing/nascar-kyle-larson-fired.html