![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2287748220.jpg\")
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Kyle Larson shrugged off missing the Knoxville Nationals this Saturday.<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson will be behind the wheel of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Saturday\u2019s NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series race at Richmond. Two days prior, the two-time and defending Cup Series champion will compete in a preliminary race at the Knoxville Nationals<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Knoxville Nationals, held in Knoxville, Iowa, is the largest and most prestigious event in sprint car racing. Larson is an avid sprint car racer and has three career victories in the Knoxville Nationals (2021, 2023, 2024).\u00a0<\/p>\n While the Hendrick Motorsports star will be competing in the preliminaries on Thursday, August 13, he will not compete in Saturday\u2019s main event as it conflicts with his Cup Series priorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite not getting to compete in the prestigious event, Larson did not seem to mind when asked about it at Iowa this past weekend.<\/p>\n Larson on missing Knoxville Nationals: \u2018It\u2019s not a big deal\u2019<\/p>\n Larson\u2019s comments about missing this year\u2019s Knoxville Nationals was brought to light by Jeff Gluck of The Athletic on X. The 34-year-old was questioned about why he was entered for Thursday\u2019s prelim race but not Saturday\u2019s main event.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust to race. I mean, yeah, I guess if there was weather, it would help us,\u201d Larson said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gluck suggested to Larson that it would be a miracle for him to make both races with the Knoxville Nationals taking place in Iowa, while the Cup Series race at Richmond goes down in Virginia.\u00a0<\/p>\n Larson acknowledged that it would be impossible given both races are set to start around the same time. Yet, the 32-time Cup Series winner said if weather could hinder the start time of either event, it could be plausible.<\/p>\n However, Larson said the weather looks intact.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d be racing at the same time, right? So yeah, I can\u2019t be in two places at once. We\u2019d obviously need rain at one of the places, but the weather looks good so far. It\u2019s not a big deal,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n Larson was asked if he was bothered by the fact NASCAR will be going head-to-head with \u201cThe Grandaddy of Them All,\u201d the nickname for the Knoxville Nationals.<\/p>\n The California native said he has been fortunate to get away with running the race when it fell on a Sunday NASCAR race weekend. Unfortunately for Larson, it was not the case this year and expects to be in a similar position next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt kinda is what it is. I don\u2019t control the schedule. I\u2019ve gotten lucky that it\u2019s fallen on Sunday races forever. It just hasn\u2019t worked out this year and potentially next year, but yeah, that\u2019s fine,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n Larson aims to end winless drought at Richmond<\/p>\n It has been 47 races since Larson has been to victory lane in the Cup Series. While he ended the 2025 campaign as the champion, the HMS driver has not won a Cup race since May 2025 at Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n Larson is a two-time Richmond winner, with his last victory coming in April 2023. The champion driver will look to end what has been a massive slump in recent weeks as he has finished 30th or worse in three of the last four races.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Kyle Larson shrugged off missing the Knoxville Nationals this Saturday. Kyle Larson will be behind the wheel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-856100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}