Kyle Larson breaks down influx of “millions and millions of dollars” as purse money in Knoxville Nationals

Kyle Larson has recently explained the increased purse for the Knoxville Nationals. As per reports, this year's winner will take home a whopping $190,000. Furthermore, just making the final round will pay $15,000.

Last year, the winning purse for the 62nd running of the Knoxville Nationals was $185,000. Qualifying for the finale paid an additional $15,000 to the drivers, a significant increase from the qualifying payout of $5000 in 2022. According to Speed Sport's Mile Kerchner, the three-day weekend event was worth $1,153,000.

Reflecting on the same in an earlier episode of the SpeedFreaks podcast, two-time Chili Bowl winner, Rico Abreu said (2:10),

"When we first started I knew the Knoxville Nationals was around $100,000. Last year we got to compete for a million bucks to win and this year...multiple $100,000 to win, $150,000 to win...it's really cool for the sport of sprint car racing to be going through; really elevating the sport."

"I think High Limit Racing has elevated the sport to get to the next level and get a lot of eyes on it right now because of these high-paying races," he added.

Kubota High Limit Racing is a sprint car racing series jointly owned by Kyle Larson and his brother-in-law Brad Sweet, who is also a 5-time World of Outlaws champion. The 410 winged sprint car series is en route to a major expansion this year, running 60 races and paying a combined $5.8 million in prize money.

One of the hosts of the podcast wondered if High Limit Racing and the World of Outlaws were competing with each other to determine who could pay more. The Hendrick Motorsports driver explained that pumping more money into the series became possible after acquiring the All-Star Circuit of Champions from NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart last year.

"Now we are fairly equal to the World of Outlaws as far as traveling purse and stuff," Kyle Larson said (3:21). "Our race events are probably larger. Their point fund money is a little bit bigger but they also race more. But yeah, in general, there's just way more money to race for this year. It's great, I think. The money gets spread out across different competitors so I think there's more teams making better money this year than any other year before."

However, the 2021 Cup Series champion mentioned there was no rivalry between High Limit Racing and the World of Outlaws.

Kyle Larson shuns possible rivalry between High Limit Racing and the World of Outlaws

According to Kyle Larson, two sprint car racing series can thrive alongside each other and not rob one another of fame or reputation. The Elk Grove native feels that if anything, the coexistence of High Limit Racing and World of Outlaws only helped elevate the sport, aid the teams to make more money, and draw more eyeballs towards sprint car racing.

Kyle Larson during a High Limit Series race in October last year (Source: Getty)

Moreover, Larson said that both series have traveling safety teams now. The organizing committee constantly seeks to make the sport safer for the drivers and get the track officials to invest in their facilities to ensure safety.

"Both Series have a traveling safety team now. There was none of that before. That's, if anything, the most important piece," Larson continued (4:37). "Just not only series pushing bigger purses which we all want and teams deserve but also pushing safety and hopefully getting these tracks to invest some money into facilities to make the sport a little bit safe and professional."

Meanwhile, the NASCAR Cup Series action returns to Sonoma Raceway on August 11th for the Cook Out 400 after a two-week hiatus due to the Summer Olympics. Kyle Larson will enter the 400-lap race as the points leader (749 points) with 4 wins this season.