Kyle Larson and daughter Audrey, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Before heading to the mountains the defend his Bristol Night Race victory, Kyle Larson enjoyed a personal triumph in watching seven-year-old daughter Audrey win her first ever race earlier in the week.
The win came at Millbridge Speedway in North Carolina in the Cadet Outlaw Kart division. This was her 12th start of the season at the sixth-mile bullring and 21st overall of the year across starts at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex, I-44 Speedway Park, Cycleland Speedway, and Port City Raceway.
She also raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Dirt Track against older brother Owen earlier in the summer.
It was a proud dad moment for Kyle.
“It was really cool,” Larson said Wednesday during a Zoom teleconference. “Obviously, you don’t ever forget a first win. I remember being at Millbridge for Owen’s first win, and then lucky enough to be able to be there for Audrey’s first-ever win as well last night. It was really neat.
“She’s been doing a really good job. She’s only been racing for about a year and she’s really competitive, and she’s driven and works at it. It was a cool moment for sure. You could see she was happy and she was getting choked up a little bit in her interviews, so it was cool.”
Kyle said he didn’t cry at all that night but came close.
“I had moments, and then when she told me that she was getting ready to cry afterwards in the trailer, that’s probably when I mostly got choked up,” Larson said. “I was the video-taping dad on my phone. So maybe if I’d had my phone down and I really was absorbing the moment, I probably would have cried. It was awesome. She’s my only daughter, so she’s got a soft spot in my heart.”
With both of his children racing Outlaw Karts, is the elder Larson starting to think about professional careers for both?
“We don’t take it quite yet as serious as Kyle or Kevin do,” he said of the Harvick and Busch families. “I would say Owen’s pretty laid back with it, and I think racing is just kind of fun for him and a way to hang with his friends and get a little competitive. Audrey, I would say, (has) more got the competitive mindset. (She) wants to watch video, run on the simulator, go to the go-kart track and practice, go testing at Millbridge, race as much as she can. I have fun with that because she’s more similar to me in that aspect. But I also want to just keep it fun for them, not burn them out at a young age, which is, I think, easy to do.
“I think Audrey is going to run like 30 races this year, and Owen’s like in the mid-50s. It sounds like a lot, but it’s not that crazy when you factor in Brexton’s probably running 400 races this year. But it’s fun and I just enjoy seeing them have a good time and building memories.”
