Adelaide double next on NASCAR star’s ‘bucket list’

Larson is again tackling Indy with Arrow McLaren after an 17th place finish on debut last May, kicking off his 2025 campaign with the 11th fastest time in Wednesday’s Open Test.

The 32-year-old Californian is famous for his versatility, regularly pairing Sprintcar outings with his full-time job as a Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series driver.

He won the $100,000 High Limit Sprintcar competition in Perth last December, where he expressed interest in returning Down Under for Adelaide in November.

There he can race on tarmac as a Supercars wildcard and aboard a Sprintcar on a dirt speedway, which is set to return to the event for a second year.

Asked at Indy about what’s next on his “racing bucket list tour”, Larson said: “It’s really tough to run big races because I’m racing 54 weekends of the year, pretty much!

“One that kind of stands out to me and hopefully we can put it together down the road is, I’d like to run a Supercar, in particular Adelaide.

“It’s their finale, they have a dirt sprintcar track in the city as well, so I could do both. I’d like to do that. There’s been some conversations, so we’ll see where it goes.

“Right now, it’s hard to look that far ahead because I’ve got Indy which is a big deal right now and we’re pretty ingrained in the Cup Series as well.”

The BP Adelaide Grand Final is perfectly positioned to host a NASCAR star as it is the only Supercars event that falls outside the gruelling 36-race Cup Series schedule.

Organisers had arranged to have two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch race in the event last year aboard a Triple Eight Camaro, only to have the driver pull the pin in August.

While Triple Eight has ruled out running an Adelaide wildcard this year as it gears up to switch to Ford, Chevrolet squad PremiAir Racing is being linked to a Larson entry.

South Australian Motor Sport Board chief executive Mark Warren affirmed to Speedcafe last week that a NASCAR star is again being sought for this year’s event.

“There’s no secret that last year we were keen to see a wildcard driver in the event, we’d love to see that again this year,” he said.

“There’s been a few teams that have suggested those sorts of opportunities, particularly when the NASCAR season finishes, it gives the one and only opportunity to get a NASCAR driver to come and race here.

“We’d welcome that, but nothing has been finalised.”

Warren was cagey on the return of the speedway element of the Adelaide event, with official confirmation believed to be imminent.

“We will be announcing more about the event in the coming weeks as to what will happen, so I won’t speculate on that at the moment,” he said.

The temporary Adelaide speedway was constructed on a cricket pitch in the Adelaide Parklands, creating a 342-metre dirt oval track.

Click here to read article