Folks, the 2025 Cup Series season was truly off to a unique start. First, ‘The Clash‘ landed in the iconic Bowman Gray Stadium. This was the first time since 1971, that a Cup Series race was hosted at ‘The Madhouse.’ And secondly, it was probably also after a long time, fans saw the 7-time Most Popular Driver awardee participating in NASCAR’s promotional events. Ahead of the race Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace were in Chicago, engaging in some activities. And while fans thought it was him finally taking the MPD position seriously, it turned out it was all thanks to NASCAR’s new incentive program. And now even Kyle Larson has joined in.
NASCAR launched a new driver-centric marketing plan. And it’s actually genius. Fans come to see their favorite drivers, so NASCAR needs them to be the face representing the sport. However, drivers like Elliott don’t like to proactively engage in all this. So NASCAR devised a plan: monetary incentives.
They have decided on a prize pool of $10-$20 Million. And based on how much a driver promotes the sport, NASCAR would pay them between several thousand dollars to a million dollars. And after seeing Kyle Larson’s recent Instagram story, it seems like he wants in on it too. After two Superspeedways and a road course, NASCAR is heading to its staple tracks. First the Phoenix Raceway and then to Las Vegas. And Larson was probably already in Vegas, so he thought of earning some money from that pool.
In his Instagram story, he talked about being at a promotional event, “We are in Las Vegas Nevada for the day. Here doing a luncheon promoting the race, upcoming race next week. And they yeah we are gonna build the Las Vegas nights scheme here a little while. Get to probably do the little siren thing. Excited about that. It’s always fun to be in Vegas. Good excuse to get here and have some fun. Should be a good night.”
Like Elliott, even Larson isn’t part of many promotional events. And while Elliott is the MPD, Larson’s popularity doesn’t need any award. This is why the 2024 Cup season’s winningest driver needs to take responsibility for making the sport more popular. With the current format, NASCAR’s popularity is already tanked and if drivers like Larson and Elliott use their social media accounts to promote races, fans would probably be more aware and intrigued to tune in. Or just attend events, and interact with fans, that should do it.
NASCAR, Motorsport, USA South Point 400-Cup Practice & Qualifying Oct 19, 2024 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson 5 during qualifying for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Las Vegas Las Vegas Motor Speedway Nevada USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xGaryxA.xVasquezx 20241019_gav_sv5_034
As NASCAR President Steve Phelps explained when the idea came out, “It’s really an industry coming together as one, which is critical in order to optimize the growth. Teams seem quite receptive to doing exactly that — what are the content opportunities, what are the opportunities to drive revenue together, what are the opportunities to look at JVs together — there’s lots of opportunities there.”
However, Ryan Blaney, ever the honest driver, simplified it for fans. “The best way I could put it is if your boss came to you and said, ‘Hey, can you work overtime? We’re not going to pay you for overtime though, but go do it out of good faith.’ You’d have kind of some reservations about it. “But if your boss is like, ‘Hey, we’re going to give you overtime, go work overtime. Well, yeah, I’ll take it, right? So I think that’s the best way I’ve tried to kind of compare the two. But I think it’s good. I think you’re going to see a lot of guys — Chase (Elliott) is a great example of going out and doing 10 times more stuff than what we would do. And this is everybody and what we normally do just because there’s a little — you’re getting some extra dough to do it.”
And well, this wasn’t the only reason Kyle Larson was in Vegas. The veteran was also there to catch the recent ice hockey game of the Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights were playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And probably thanks to Larson’s loud cheers, the Knights won the game. And for the folks who don’t know, Larson is a big hockey fan. Like he equally enjoys watching hockey and basketball. But we know, given a choice, he would pick hockey any day.
Sharing why he likes watching hockey, Larson had said, “I like going and sitting as close as I can to the action. Hockey was cool because, I mean, dude… the puck is flying so fast you can’t even hardly keep up with it and those guys are, you know, zipping up and down the rink like it’s nothing.”
While he’s having fun in Vegas, let’s hope Phoenix is on his mind too. As that’s where NASCAR is heading next and HMS would want Larson to come in his winning form ASAP.
What are Kyle Larson’s chances to win at Phoenix?
After a P6 season finish last year, Larson is surely looking for redemption. He had the most wins (6) and the second-best average finish (12.9) amongst all the drivers, still, he failed to bag that second championship. And this season hasn’t started off like Larson had hoped either. He got a P20 in the Daytona 500. And then surprisingly, he did well this year at Atlanta with a P3 and now at the recent COTA race…he came in 32nd.
But let’s cut him some slack, Superspeedways and road courses are exactly his strong suit. Also, Phoenix is a 1 mile intermediate track and well Larson has been consistent here but he’s not got many wins. So we won’t count him as a front-runner. The last time he won at such a track was in the 2021 Phoenix race in the fall. However, he hasn’t gotten a single win in the next-gen era on such tracks. In fact, out of his 54 starts on 1 miler, he’s only won twice. The second one came at Dover in 2019. Which is also ancient history.
Although there might still be some hope, in his last Phoenix race, Larson finished in P4. So maybe he could better it this time. But still, it won’t be easy as Christopher Bell is on a roll. He coming from two back-to-back wins. And he would be looking to make it 3 for 3. And the #20 driver also happens to be the winner of the spring race here at Phoenix last year.
So, what do you think are Larson’s chances to win the next race? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
The post After Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson Joins Hunt for NASCAR’s $1M Prize With Loyalty to Vegas Golden Knights appeared first on EssentiallySports.
