Kyle Larson’s week: WWE, Indy crash, dirt win, and Talladega

LINCOLN, Ala- Kyle Larson’s week leading up to Talladega was eventful to say the least. 

It started off by a trip to WWE’s Wrestlemania in Las Vegas, followed by getting into the wall during Indianapolis 500 practice, then winning another World of Outlaws race in Jacksonville Friday night. 

“Just a normal-ish week for me,” Larson said. “Sitting in a race car almost every day. It was just unfortunate to get into the wall in practice, but I’d rather get it out of the way in April rather than May.” 

Larson, notorious for having a ridiculously busy racing schedule, won’t have much time to think about his second Indy 500 attempt with all of his racing obligations in between. 

“I don’t really get too far ahead of myself like with preparation and stuff like that,” Larson said. “I have so many races between now and then, I think I race 10 more times before I go back in May.” 

With the NASCAR Cup Series off last week for Easter, Larson took his family to experience Wrestlemania, where fans quickly spotted him sitting up front near the ring. 

Oddly enough, Larson is the second Hendrick Motorsports driver to appear at WWE this season, as William Byron made an appearance following his Daytona 500 victory, and the third current Cup driver to attend a match this year with Chase Briscoe also taking in some wrestling action recently. 

“Owen had been asking me for a couple years to go to any wrestling event like that,” Larson said. “It just worked out where it was on our off weekend and why not go to the biggest one. It was really cool, I actually had a good time, we got to meet Logan Paul for the first time so that was cool.” 

Owen, however, wasn’t the only member of the Larson family over the moon to be at WWE’s premier event of the year. 

“My daughter Audrey, she’s fun to take to sporting events,” Larson said. “She got super into it so she was screaming and shouting and all that. Owen and Katelyn were embarrassed of her but it was fun.” 

While the week leading up to Talladega was fun, Larson anticipates that fun coming to a close this weekend at Talladega. 

Larson’s struggles at superspeedways are no secret in the NASCAR world, even though he managed to finish second at Atlanta earlier in the season. The former Cup Series champion just tries to keep his head up nowadays when heading to the drafting tracks. 

“I do enjoy that atmosphere part of it but I don’t enjoy the racing,” Larson said. “I don’t know if many people do. We come here twice, we go to superspeedways now six times a year, you kinda learn to get in the right mindset for it.”