Make-A-Wish Foundation opportunity close to 22-year-old’s heart
This weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR’s hottest Sprint Cup Series rookie Kyle Larson will host a Make-A-Wish Foundation opportunity for a youngster.
He’ll work with the organization, which helps chronically or terminally ill children, to give the lucky child (in this case a teenager named Christian) a wonderful day at the race track, free of worry and full of smiles.
It’s something the 22-year-old Larson knows how to deliver big-time these days.
With three top-three finishes in the last four races in the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, Larson is on the verge of notching his first career Sprint Cup victory. At the very least, he’s served notice that he absolutely belongs in NASCAR’s big leagues — and will be here for a while.
Larson, who hasn’t finished worse than 12th since August, is coming off a runner-up finish last Sunday at Kansas — his second second-place in the last three weeks.
“I’m definitely leaving (the races) feeling good,” Larson said. “Yeah, it is a little bit frustrating to come that close and not get wins, but it’s also nice to see yourself running in the top three with everybody that’s in the Cup field. It’s amazingly tough.
“It’s really exciting but a little bit frustrating at the same time, but I still definitely leave in a good mood. It would be kind of weird to leave the race track in a bad mood for finishing second.”
He said the good mood has carried over to his Chip Ganassi Racing team, which has had shining moments before Larson took the wheel, but never really experienced the sustained success the group is now having.
“I think we’ve been having a lot of fun as a team lately,” Larson said. “You can tell everybody is pretty relaxed because we’ve been running well. We’re all focused, and we see how close we are, and it makes everybody in the shop work even harder to just find that extra little bit.
“I’m loving the way the team is working together right now. I just think we’re in a great spot, and we’re only going to get better. Just got to keep the atmosphere good in the shop and with the team and everything, and I think that’ll also help make the cars go faster.”
A win, this week in particular with his special fan in attendance, is extra motivation for Larson, who will soon become a father himself. He and girlfriend Katelyn Sweet are expecting a boy in December.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation has been close to Larson’s heart since he was younger. He used to compete in an indoor go-kart race in his native Northern California that raised money for the organization. And this week the NASCAR Nationwide Series car he will race Friday night will carry special sponsorship from Nature Made’s “Kids First” vitamins, which will make donations to Make-A-Wish for every bottle of vitamins sold (exclusively at Target).
“It’s always good when you can make kids feel special and great and anytime I can do anything for Make-A-Wish, I think it’s really cool,” Larson said. “These kids go through struggles and stuff that isn’t fun so when they get to come to the race track and meet myself and other drivers and having Make-A-Wish on the car he’ll have somebody to cheer for.
“And if we can win and we get him in Victory Lane after the race and I think he’d have a blast. Just to see the enjoyment on his face would be priceless.”
That would be the ultimate “win-win” scenario.
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