All Episodes

June 11, 2021 • 13 mins

On this podcast, Kyle Larson, the hottest driver in NASCAR, stops by the Lights Out Podcast with Shawne Merriman for a quick interview. Larson talks about being a part of Hendrick Motors' monumental moment. With all the success, how does Crew Chief Cliff Daniels pump the team up for success? Kyle talks about the last five weeks and how the momentum has shifted for the team. And why does Kyle still run on dirt tracks; while racing in the Cup Series?

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a
hand effect. Boom boom, boom out go to light. This
is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up, guys. We're
back again with another Lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman. Um,
and we're going NASCAR today. Man, it's it's cool. And
I feel bad because normally I would get out to

(00:25):
about ten tracks, whether it's short tracks or you know,
one of the main tracks a year. And uh, the
last two years, man, since the pandemic, I just haven't
been able to make it out to as many tracks
as I would like to. I mean, hell, I would
even go to some of the dirt tracks if I could. Anyway.
Kyle Larson a couple of big victories over the past
three or four weeks, just completely on fire. Glad he

(00:48):
was able to take a few moments a day to
jump on with us. And for all your NASCAR fans,
we got a treat for you, Kyle Larson. Kyle, what's up?
What's uping? My dude? How are you man? Good? Are
you good? Man? I finally found somebody was harder to
get a hold up than me. I was, like I
thought I was bad. But uh, you you've just been

(01:08):
You've been busy, man. But the last few weeks, man,
it's been crazy. Yeah, it's been good. Been winning a lot,
it's been fun. I feel like crap because I've only
been to a couple of race tracks this year. Normally
I get out to about tend Up and I'll jump
on the jump on the plane and come out on
the weekends and I'll come back and try to hold
some stuff for football. So I haven't been out to

(01:29):
admit the tracks this year. But this last few weeks, man,
you've just been on fire. Thank you. Um. One of
the things I wanted to ask you about because and
I've been around I've been around the tracks, man for
twelve years, so we I don't know if you've seen
my big gass and not just walking past you're trying
to push you push your car through inspection on the
driver's meetings or anything like that. But it seems like

(01:49):
you you've always been close to having these kind of
weeks right back to back weeks, but lately you guys
have been executing like hell, man, what's what's been What's
been a big difference? Yeah, I don't know. I think
it's a call the nation of a lot of stuff,
But I think the biggest thing is the race car
being really fast. I think when when your race cars
as good as ours has been here lately, um, you

(02:10):
can kind of slow things down and and not you know,
try to overdo things. And um, our car has been
so fast, you're lately, you know, our pickture has been
doing a great job. When your car is a good
you don't have to be as aggressive on the racetracks.
You make less mistakes and things like that. So, um,
it's a fun place to be in my position. And

(02:32):
I just hope we can continue to uh keep keep
our cars as fast and you're try and get them
even better. Yeah, speak speaking of your car, man, and
and you're cruel and everything. You know, just tell me,
tell me a little bit about Cliff Daniels and in
the job that they've been doing. Um, and you know,
I brought up execution because a lot of people need
to understand, like what what goes on behind the scenes

(02:54):
and your team and an adjustment you guys made over
the last month or so. Yeah, I'm not I'm not
sure what adjustments we've made. I think probably just you're
tweaking things make them all all areas better. But yeah,
Cliff daniels Is is such an awesome crew chief, a
very you know, great leader. Um, very intense. I think,
you know, he kind of reminds me of probably like

(03:15):
what a football coach would be, you know, the way
he he's intense. That I was, I was just going,
I didn't want to make that correlation, but I was
just going to say that because I've come across Cliff
and got a chance to talk to him several times. Yeah,
like his you know, pre race speeches and post race
motivational things and stuff like It's It's honestly something that
I didn't think that I needed, um, But now that

(03:38):
I'm around it and around you know how he works,
I really love it and it and it definitely motivates
me and and I think it keeps us all positive
and um you knowing things that you have a bad race,
you know, he he knows exactly what to say to
kind of pump you up and keep you digging and
keep you working hard. So um man, he's a super smart,

(03:59):
you know, human being in crew chief, and um, I
think it shows on the race track. No, no, absolutely,
And you guys, um for many reasons have been kind
of turning it up lately, and that's why I keep
bringing it back to the execution part because you've been like,
in my opinion, you've just been disclosed from doing that
even though you you know, first time you've kind of
done this, and I think you guys just beat the

(04:21):
what the Petty the Petty group, right, Yeah, you just
beat that landmark. You talk talked a little bit about that,
how big that was because Petty group the reason why
I even got involved in NASCAR back in two thousand
and I think seven or eight, um, and just being
a part of that group thick, you know, the Petty
experience and and just being around. But you guys just
crossed over that landmark. Yeah that's cool. Um. Yeah, So

(04:44):
you know Rick Richard Petty was the winning is you
know team or driver and team whatever with two sixty
eight wins um where you now Rick Hendrick and Indrick
Motorsports has accumulated uh and surpassed you know, his his records.
So it was coolly a part of that and cool

(05:05):
to be the guy to win the race to get
him over that you know record breaking UM deal with
Richard Petty. Uh, it was very important to Mr h
that's uh that we get it and get it quickly,
and yeah it was cool, you know it. You can
definitely tell. I could tell every time I talked to
him that it was important to him. So nice that

(05:26):
we're able to to do that, And just shows you
know how how big of an impact Richard Petty as
well as Rick Hendrick have had on the sport of
NASCAR with all those wins combined. How much? How much
has that talked about? Right? Because I always ask guys,
and you know, me being a former player, I will
look up and see how many sacks I had, right
and like, okay, I got two more sacks and you

(05:47):
know I'll lead in this category, all right? So whatever
the landmark? Maybe how how often is that talked about?
Or is it not really important? Or someone might come
into the garage and be like, hey, by the way,
you know you guys do this, this this is the
landmark you're going to cross. Is that ever brought up
in a conversation at all? Um? Just I don't know, Uh,

(06:09):
I don't think so. I mean for me though, you know,
I like to you know, I've had a great year,
so I like to go and kind of look at
my stats and compare them to say, you know, like
last year, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, it seemed like,
you know, they dominated the season. So you know, I've
recently went and looked at their stats and um, you know,

(06:30):
like laugh sledding stuff, and we've already led I think,
almost as much or more than than they had last year.
So I was like, wow, that's crazy to think, you know, um,
but then they also had a lot more wins you know,
the year, but we still have a long ways ago.
So yeah, I mean, I definitely try to look at
that stuff and and it gives you like a goal,
um to get to UM. But then yeah, there is

(06:52):
also some like analytics guys out there that keep track
of everything and and you know, sometimes they produce an
article that tells you about your your your pass rating
and stuff like that and restart your retention and things.
So it's it's cool to to look at that stuff.
And it definitely if you're if you're loan in a category,

(07:12):
it definitely you know, tells you an area that you
need to get better. And um. Work on Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Yeah. Obviously I've been around
the sporting long time, so I try to explain to
people to analytics, like, right, so this weekend, you you

(07:33):
guys are, you're coming up when Texas right for the
All Star All Stars play you place poll? Right? Yeah,
it was a random draw, um, and we got lucky
and drew the poll. No, come on, hey, yeah it
was random, so I mean it is all luck and uh,
thankfully we got the poll, so that should help out
a lot. How much do you guys believe in momentum? Right,

(07:55):
because you've had You've had a great I mean a
great year, but especially the last you know, three of
you know, last month or so has been big. How
much do you guys are banking on a momentum Like Okay,
hey we were here, we need to go here. We're here,
we need to go here and take advantage, you know,
of this momentum you guys have right now. Yeah, I
think momentum is huge and in any any sport really, um,

(08:17):
but racing, you know, it's it's important as well, just
because you can kind of ride that wave and keep
pilot on your hopefully good finishes. So these last five
weeks have been great. We haven't been out of the
top two and have had shots to win even a
lot before that. But um, and two, I raised a
lot outside of NASCAR, and even that racing has gone

(08:38):
really yeah, and that's gone well for me to last
few weeks. So it really does help my momentum and
my personal confidence, and I think that's definitely a good
thing to go out there and continue having success. I
talked to a couple of guys who do you know
racing the dirt tracks? And I talked you guys who
racing the short tracks or whatever? And how do you

(08:58):
meant like mentally switched gears for that? Do you have
to you know, kind of say okay, I gotta get
back into saddle this or you can just go bounce
back back and forth, no problem. Well, I think for me,
I might be different than some of the other drivers
just because I do it so often. Um, like this week,
you know, I'm running four nights in a row in

(09:20):
a late Model before I go to you know, Texas
or on the cup car, and so I think when
I do it that often, you know it's I don't
have to think about it much. But I know, you know,
my good buddy like Ricky Stenhouse, who he doesn't do
a bunch of dirt racing, but he ran, you know,
midget last night in Indiana, and I'm sure, I'm sure
when he buckles in, he's got to like think about Okay,

(09:42):
you know, I'm in a midget. How does this drive? All? Right?
I need to like remind my brain a certain thing.
But for me, I've gotten so used to jumping in
and out of race cars that uh, I feel like
I can adapt pretty quickly. But you're not. You're not
racing the full season right on the dirt track. You
just kind of bounced back and forth between races. Yeah. Yeah,
I don't have time to race a full season and

(10:05):
chase points or anything like that. But um, this year,
I'm raising a bunch, but I can still pop in
and run those those series and stuff. But yeah, so
I can be a little bit more aggressive probably than
than other drivers, just because I'm not chasing points. No, absolutely,
and good luck this weekend. But last thing, I want
to ask you about your foundation, man, because I was
checking out your website. Um, actually last night and this morning,

(10:27):
tell me a little bit about what you got going on. Yeah. Thanks, No,
I've started the Kyle Larson Foundation here this year recently,
and um, last year I got to you work together
with a lot of well a few different foundations and
hang around their their communities and stuff, and they're they're
important part of me in my return back to Nascars.

(10:47):
So you know, this year I started my foundation to
try and raise money and awareness to help out their communities,
you know, Tony Sonny Foundation and Urban Youth Thracing School
and uh the hender Cares program. So you through it
like this year. With each lap completed and top fives
and wins and stuff, the money kind of piles up.
So already this year we've raised sixty eight I think

(11:10):
sixty eight thousand dollars so with a goal of getting
to five hundred thousand. So still a long ways ago,
but um, it's been cool to kind of get involved
and get out there and do stuff. I've always wanted
to start a foundation. I just didn't know like what
that was and what I wanted to support. Um, but yeah,
it's been good and I hope to uh to grow

(11:32):
it into something even more impactful. Down the road, and
how can people be involved. You've got a website, right,
you have the website if people to check out the information, Yeah,
it's uh Kyle Larson or yeah, Kyler's Foundation dot org.
I believe and you can go on there and and
you'll learn more about it as well as there should
be a tab in there to to help donate and

(11:52):
help me reach that goal. Awesome brother, a heavy uh
kick ass weekend. Keep that momentum going, you on fire.
I'm we was able to sneak you and I'm like, dude,
we gotta we gotta get cow man, we gotta get
cow and uh So I appreciate you taking the time
and I'll be at the track soon. I'm gonna come
stop by the trailer man say what's up when I
get out there? Okay, yeah cool, Yeah, I look forward
to thank you. Okay, you gotta man take it easy.

(12:14):
Yeah you too, see it? Thank you guys. Listening in
to another lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman and
uh wow, you know it's it's funny because being a
former athlete, I always feel I'm not gonna see bad,
but I always have a certain feeling when I when
the guy's on fire. He's you know, he's hot, and
he got a bunch of things going on. Kyle Larson

(12:36):
has you know, been just killing it the last month
or so, and he's not a great year, but this
past month or five weeks has just been incredible. And
I'm like telling my guys, we gotta we gotta get
cow on, we gotta get cow on. And uh. So
I appreciate him taking the time to day so uh,
and I appreciate you guys. Man. It's it's just been
really cool for me to see these numbers grow and
you guys described and leaving these reviews and comments. You know,

(12:58):
I was give you a funny story. I was in
Miami a few weeks ago and I was walking down
of my hotel and um, you know, two guys walked
up to me this for two seconds, hit man, we
love your podcast. And I was like, man, that's that's
pretty damn cool. And they kept it moving. So obviously
you guys are likeing and I appreciate that. So keep
listening and keep subscribing to the Lights of podcast with Me,

(13:22):
Seawan Merriman and uh We'll be back with another one
next week.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.