Kyle Larson hasn’t raced in the Tulsa Shootout in 15 years but with his son racing in the event this year, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series decided ‘why not’ and entered in several divisions as well.
With the help from a different group of kids, Larson won in his return to the event in the Winged Outlaw Kart division. Tulsa Shootout is the preliminary event for the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals for Outlaw Karts and Micro Sprints with divisions for both adults and children.
It was a slugfest of a race amongst several decorated dirt races, the feature also including fellow Cup Series star Christopher Bell, but Larson won over the likes of TJ Smith, Emerson Axsom and Daison Pursley — all of them throwing sliders and dive bombs on each other.
Larson credited the kids sitting in Turn 2, the miniature rowdies, for the win.
“There’s a bunch of 8-to-12-year-olds telling me where to run and I put a lot of faith in them,” Larson said in Victory Lane. “I think they helped me. They told me when to move down and when to move up and once I moved up, I was just trying to pound it and run fast laps and not wreck or make a mistake and cost myself the lead.
“I was just being timid, and then caught traffic and thought I could run back to the bottom and get by those two lappers, and one shut my lane off, and got me in trouble. I knew the rest of those guys were close and just had to get racing. I was fortunate to hold on for the win and that felt good.”
Larson won over 275 drivers entered in the Winged Outlaw Class.
“That was a lot of fun,” Larson said. “It was a great surface for winged cars. You could pound the bottom good or you could rip the top hard. Dasion was sliding in 1 and 2 and making some ground up there so a lot of options but it’s difficult when you’re leading.
“So credit to the toddler rowdies or whatever we’re going to call them!”
