In the wake of his suspension and firing in April, Kyle Larson has reportedly completed his sensitivity training with NASCAR. However, he is still indefinitely suspended with no lifting date set. In the meantime, a similar course has also been completed with the World of Outlaws, and Larson will return to the dirt series on Friday.
“The sensitivity training course that @KyleLarsonRacin completed fulfills that requirement from both @NASCAR and @WorldOfOutlaws, Adam Stern of the Sports Business Journal reported on Wednesday. “However, Larson remains indefinitely suspended by NASCAR, and that is likely to continue on through the season re-start at Darlington next week.”
Larson was suspended in mid-April after dropping a racial slur on live streaming during an iRacing event. The fallout from the incident precipitated into multiple sponsors severing ties with the six-time Cup Series race winner until Chip Ganassi Racing ultimately fired him, ending a seven-year tenure with the team. CGR has since hired 2003 champion Matt Kenseth to pilot the #42 for the rest of the 2020 season.
With no return to NASCAR in sight in the immediate future, Larson will go back to his dirt track racing roots. On Tuesday, the World of Outlaws announced he will be allowed to race with the NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series at Knoxville Raceway on Friday night. He had completed a similar sensitivity training session with the dirt racing sanctioning body. Larson, who owns Kyle Larson Racing, had competed in the season opener at Volusia Speedway Park; after three races, he currently sits twenty-fourth in points.
The Knoxville event will be WoO’s first race since February and the season’s disruption by COVID-19. Although the race will be behind closed doors (though available on pay-per-view), World of Outlaws intends to run later races with limited capacity. Larson not be the only NASCAR veteran in the race; eighteen-time Cup winner Kasey Kahne, who retired after the 2018 season for health reasons, will also participate.
