Kyle Larson faces challenges not just in NASCAR but in the sprint racing world as well. In 2025, the Hendrick Motorsports driver crashed multiple times, like in a World of Outlaws race in June when his winged vehicle flipped over. Then just last month, Larson flipped again at a USAC race after contact from a rival. However, these incidents hardly compare to the danger he faced many years ago.

Kyle Larson narrates a spine-chilling tale

“I’ll never forget we went to Vegas, and I went to pick Colby up at the hotel, and Tommy came walking out. Tommy, he’s probably going to say something s—– to me or whatever. He walked over the car so nicely. It’s been so nice ever since,” Kyle Larson said on Episode 67 of The Driver’s Project podcast. “I talked a bunch of s— on the context, and his whole team came out wanting to fight. He wanted to fight another time. I’m like not even 16. He’s wanted to kill me. But, uh, that was fun.”

Before Kyle Larson laid his foundation in NASCAR, he was a golden streak in sprint cars. He faced many rivals, among whom was Tommy Tarlton. One of the instances where the two faced off was at Ocean Speedway back in 2010. The two were locked fiercely in battle until Tarlton fended off Larson in the final half of the Golden State Challenge sprint car race.

“I legit hated him. Like, I hate the wrong word, but I hated Tommy, and I think he was just mean. Like he was a bully. And uh, I just couldn’t stand him, you know, whatever,” Kyle Larson continued. However, the winds of aggressive rivalry changed soon after: “The day he retired, he turned into like the nicest person ever.”

Tommy Tarlton retired from full-time racing to focus on his construction framing company based in California. Despite the past run-ins on the dirt circuits, which resulted in a spine-chilling encounter, Tarlton approached Kyle Larson for a primary sponsorship opportunity in 2021. Larson sported the No. 5 Tarlton and Son Chevrolet at the playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sept. 26 of that year. This marked a complete reversal of his past animosity toward Tarlton.

Recently, Kyle Larson absolved on-track rivalry with another sprint car racer.

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Placing his opponent on a pedestal

Throughout their teenage years, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell squared off against each other on dirt tracks. They were fierce rivals, whether it was in sprint cars or at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That rivalry filtered into the NASCAR Cup Series, where both drive for rival teams – Larson at Hendrick Motorsports and Bell at Joe Gibbs Racing. But despite their intense competition, there is a fuzzy exchange of compliments, as Larson acknowledged Bell’s talents.

“I would assume you know growing up with the background of racing sprint cars and midgets like that, everything reacts so fast that you learn to feel the tires very well,” Larson said on The Driver’s Project podcast. “I think going to NASCAR, we have all this data that we can look at, I can see every driver’s data telemetry, whatever, the squiggly lines of throttle, brake, steering, RPM, speed, whatever, and like [Christopher] Bell and I, I would say, have the smoothest hands in the garage.”

This compliment is bound to further strengthen their competition on the track. Kyle Larson’s sprint racing pursuits continue to hone his racing skills – let’s see what the future holds.