NASCAR star Kyle Larson was at zMAX Dragway on Friday, less than 24 hours before he was due in Talladega, Alabama, for another Cup weekend. Instead of preparing for banking and bump-drafting, Larson spent the afternoon where horsepower hits different — the NHRA pits.
He wasn’t there as a celebrity guest. He was there like a lot of race fans show up: in shorts, family in tow, wandering through pit spaces and taking it all in.
Larson spent time around the John Force Racing camp, visiting with HendrickCars.comteammates Josh Hart and Jack Beckman. If you didn’t know who he was, he looked more like a fan killing time than one of America’s most accomplished racers.
There was one thing he hoped might happen before he left. If somebody wanted to fire one up and let him sit in it, he was ready.
“I would like to sit in it while they’re running it, but that’s about the extent that I want to go,” Larson said. “I don’t ever want to go down the track, but I’ve actually sat and I’m good buddies of J.R. Todd’s. I’ve been in his car before while they fired it and it’s unreal. So just the smell, the noise, all of it, it’s so cool.”
That is usually where television fails drag racing. TV can show flames, smoke, and scoreboards. It cannot show your chest vibrating from header cackle or your eyes watering from nitro in the air.
Larson understands the sport better than many outsiders might think. He has followed NHRA for years, helped by a longtime friendship with J.R. Todd.
“Yeah, for sure,” Larson said when asked if NASCAR racers are closet drag racing fans. “And then like I said, I’ve known J.R. Todd since like 2011, so I’ve been around it quite a bit and when you have a friend in it, you pay more attention to it and you’re even a bigger fan.”
Larson’s roots with drag racing stretch back to California.
Before trophies, charter flights, and Sunday obligations, he was another kid going to Sonoma Raceway, watching qualifying sessions and race day rounds. Like many racers, once the noise gets in your system, it tends to stay there.
“But yeah, growing up in California, I would go to Sonoma Raceway about every year for a qualifying day and some of the race days,” Larson said. “And two, I feel like a lot of these teams I feel like are based in Indiana, so a lot of them are dirt racing fans and that’s what I did for or do still.”
That crossover is real. Dirt racers know drag racers. Sprint car people know Funny Car people. In motorsports, circles overlap more than outsiders realize.
“But, yeah, it’s a small community,” Larson said. “It’s still racing community, but it’s a small community.”
Larson has driven cars with enough power to command respect. But nitro numbers still sound like science fiction to most drivers.
“No, I couldn’t, because I mean, I know what 900 feels like and that’s a beast,” Larson said when asked what 11,000 horsepower might feel like. “So gosh, so much more than that would be incredible.”
Then came the most honest line of the day.
“There’s only however many lucky amount of people that have experienced that in their life, but I guess it’s not one that I really want to experience just because I would be scared.”
That answer would earn nods in any nitro pit.
Fear is not weakness in Top Fuel or Funny Car. Fear usually means you understand the consequences.
Friday also gave Larson something rare — a racetrack visit with no fire suit, no mandatory appearances, and no pressure attached.
“Honestly, I do get to do that quite a bit throughout the year,” Larson said. “I mean, with my kids racing and I go to sprint car races still some throughout the year, but it is nice, especially here in Charlotte, close to home.”
He brought family and friends, many seeing NHRA in person for the first time. Larson said that matters because drag racing does its best recruiting at the gate.
“And get to being friends and family out here and have them experience it for their first time is something I always enjoy bringing new people to these, because you don’t fully get the experience when you’re watching on TV,” Larson said.
He is right. Nitro must be felt before it is understood.
“You have to come to one of these to actually know what it’s like,” Larson said. “And usually, when you bring somebody, they keep returning. So, yeah, I look forward to getting out there and seeing it and having my friends experience it.”
