Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Kyle Larson Says He Might Retire From NASCAR Early

Transcript

Kyle Larson Says He Might Retire From NASCAR Early · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  We saw a new phenomenon starting in NASCAR.
• 0:04
  All the drivers quitting at at like 42 years old, whether it's
• 0:09
  Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Clint Boyer, I got a
• 0:15
  list here. I mean, it goes on and on.
• 0:19
  It seemed unbelievable that Kevin Harvick went to 48, you
• 0:24
  know, or whatever he is. I'm not asking you to answer
• 0:28
  'cause I know you can't. Do you see yourself going past
• 0:33
  42, since that seems to be the new quitting point?
• 0:38
  I mean it's it's it's hard to, it's hard to say like when
• 0:41
  you're in it. I don't.
• 0:44
  I mean, like sitting here right now, like I don't see myself
• 0:47
  going to 40. OK, that's the one I want to.
• 0:51
  Know. But that's not me.
• 0:53
  That's not me retiring from racing.
• 0:55
  Like, right. That's that.
• 0:56
  I think I'm different than than others, you know, like Kevin, I
• 1:00
  mean, he's retiring, not maybe from full time racing, but you
• 1:04
  know, he's got a plan to go in the booth and all that.
• 1:07
  You know, a lot of these drivers too, I mean, I don't think they
• 1:09
  meant to be done at 42. I just think they got kind of
• 1:12
  pushed out of the sport a little bit with, you know, young
• 1:14
  drivers coming up. Who, Matt Kenseth.
• 1:16
  Who could be paid a lot less than what they're making, stuff
• 1:20
  like that. But then like for me, you know,
• 1:23
  going back to what we talked about early in the show, like
• 1:26
  there's a lot of stuff that I want to accomplish while I'm
• 1:28
  still my prime. So, you know, I'm 31 right now.
• 1:33
  I've been in this, I'm going going into my 11th season in the
• 1:36
  Cup Series. So like, I've already been in it
• 1:38
  for a while. So my eyes, if, you know, if I
• 1:42
  could raise another seven or eight, seven or eight years, you
• 1:46
  know, I can earn a lot of money. I can set myself up really well
• 1:49
  and and I can go you know still be in my prime hopefully and go
• 1:55
  compete for you know premier Dirt Series, Championship you
• 2:00
  know and high Limit hopefully is taken off by then and that's the
• 2:03
  premier Series and go try and win a championship there, try
• 2:06
  and win a championship and whatever the big late model
• 2:09
  series is stuff like that. You know I'm still young so yeah
• 2:15
  I don't know. Like I said, it's hard to say,
• 2:18
  it's hard to predict, you know, right now.
• 2:20
  But I've done it a long time and and like I said, I think what's
• 2:25
  important to me is, is still getting to go do and try to
• 2:28
  accomplish some big things while having the time to do it down
• 2:32
  the road while I'm still, you know, close to my prime.
• 2:34
  Clint Boyer, I'll see him at Sturgis every year and we're
• 2:39
  like minded, we're all centered and he made a good point, he
• 2:44
  says. You know when you start racing
• 2:46
  at six years old, 40 year old feels like you're 100 and I can
• 2:51
  understand your point. Clint Clint has ran himself
• 2:55
  hard. I don't think him feeling 100
• 2:59
  has anything to do with him racing.
• 3:01
  That's all done outside the race car.
• 3:04
  You you mentioned something right there and I just kind of
• 3:08
  want to finish on it. I believe everybody in the
• 3:12
  sport, whether you've said it, I believe everybody in the sport
• 3:18
  feels like you are going to retire from NASCAR and then
• 3:24
  start doing what you want full time.
• 3:28
  And I guess that's pretty much what you said.
• 3:31
  And I I I think that's awesome. Because you you're given NASCAR
• 3:35
  20 years of your life. Yeah, and and too, I don't want
• 3:38
  people to get spun out about it. I'm, I'm not saying, like, I'm
• 3:42
  not saying I'm retired at 30, whatever.
• 3:44
  And no, that I'm not retiring at 30.
• 3:46
  Ever. But I love racing in NASCAR.
• 3:49
  I I would not be racing in NASCAR if I didn't love it.
• 3:52
  I think a lot of race fans feel that I don't like racing in
• 3:56
  NASCAR. I'm just doing it to make money
• 4:00
  and then I'm going to go retire and and all that.
• 4:02
  I I would have done that a long time ago If I didn't, if I
• 4:05
  didn't love what I'm doing and love racing in NASCAR and
• 4:08
  competing for wins and racing for the best team in in the
• 4:11
  sport. I love, absolutely love what I'm
• 4:15
  doing right now. So and I and and who knows if
• 4:19
  I'm if I'm still loving it, you know, in eight years or
• 4:23
  whatever, I could still go race NASCAR.
• 4:26
  You know, your life changes. So I could.
• 4:29
  I who knows I could be in NASCAR till I'm 50.
• 4:32
  But you know, I I love what I'm doing.
• 4:35
  I get to race dirt stuff all the time.
• 4:37
  I get to race NASCAR all the time and it's a blast.
• 4:42
  Yeah, well, it it's best to leave before they push out.
• 4:47
  And I don't think they'd ever push you out in the million
• 4:49
  years you you fall in that category of the great Jeff
• 4:53
  Gordon. And as we saw with my dear
• 4:56
  friends like Matt Kenseth and Bobby Labonte, they pushed those
• 4:59
  guys out and they didn't deserve that.
• 5:01
  Those are my dear friends.