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Kyle Larson’s Worst Fears Are Realized as Sprint Car Nemesis Leaves Rick Hendrick’s Pride in the Dirt

Published 10/04/2023, 6:37 AM EDT

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Talladega was a tough day at the office for Kyle Larson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was on his way to achieving one of his best results at the superspeedway, but it was not meant to be. After running P6 on the last lap, Larson was involved in a crash right before the finish line and could only end up at P15. He is currently 15 points ahead of the cutline with one race to go.

But Talladega was not the only place where Kyle Larson had to deal with defeat. The Hendrick Motorsports star’s exploits in motorsports go beyond NASCAR. Larson is the owner and a competitor in the High Limit Sprint Car Series. The 31-year-old started the Tuesday night race at Bridgeport Motorsports and failed to win for the second week running. This time, he was defeated by one of his sprint car rivals, who had said earlier that he was coming for the glory.

Kyle Larson is stunned by his arch-rival as his title charge comes under threat

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Ahead of the race, Kyle Larson had hoped that the fans at Bridgeport would witness an exciting event. The High Limit Series did not disappoint. The battle for the win went on until the very last lap of the race, and the fans were going wild. The 31-year-old will be quite pleased with how his competition has been received.

However, the issue for Kyle Larson, the racer, is that he was the one who was defeated at Bridgeport. His sprint car rival, Rico Abreu, held off the Cup Series driver to take a fantastic victory at the dirt speedway. He became the first driver to win a race in the series from the front row, at the expense of one of Rick Hendrick’s best drivers.

Abreu has been in fantastic form all year. He picked up his third series victory and 12th victory overall in 2023. Ahead of the series finale in Indiana next week, Kyle Larson’s advantage at the top of the table was reduced to just 15 points.

Rico Abreu had made it clear that he had only one goal going into the closing stages of the inaugural High Limit Sprint Car Series. The 31-year-old has delivered on his promise and seems to be on course to shock the tournament’s owner, Kyle Larson, next week at Indiana.

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Sprint car driver makes good on his promise

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“I have an amazing team this year. We’ve really worked hard together to just excel our program and execute, and circumstances like (Lernerville). It’s fun. I don’t really track these points or anything like this. I just want to come in and win these races. I’m just really fortunate to be in this situation to race fast race cars right now,” Kyle Larson said before the Bridgeport race.

It seemed like Kyle Larson would run away with the Sprint Car Series title, but Rico Abreu’s resurgence has put a dent in his title hopes. The California native has taken seven straight podiums and will hope to cause an upset in the season-ending race at Indiana.

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Kyle Larson’s focus is obviously more on the Cup Series, but a man as competitive as him would hate to lose in a competition that he founded. The 31-year-old is still 15 points clear at the top of the table. Unless he is involved in a crash or suffers a mechanical failure, the former Cup Series champion will likely win his inaugural sprint car competition.

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Written by:

Nilavro Ghosh

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Nilavro Ghosh is a NASCAR Author at EssentiallySports. After completing his undergrad in the field, he has been a full-time journalist for the past three years. He started his journey as a motorsports fan with MotoGP and Formula One, before gravitating towards NASCAR.
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Edited by:

Shivali Nathta