June 15, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Shots fired: Kyle Larson sets his sights on Dale Blaney's Ohio Speedweeks record

Kyle Larson’s closing shot following his Wayne County Speedway sprint car win was, “I’m coming for you, Dale!”

The comment was tongue-in-cheek. Larson is not known for blusterous banter. Despite winning the last three NASCAR Cup races and enjoying a remarkable average finish of 1.5 in his last six stock car starts, success hasn’t changed the 28-year-old racer.

But calling out Dale Blaney on the eve of running at the family’s home track—Sharon Speedway? C’mon, man.

“We always joke with each other about some stuff,” Blaney said. “I have 32 (Ohio Speedweeks wins) and he now has 13. He’s got a ways to go.”

Sure, Larson is gaining on “The Low Rider” when it comes to total Ohio Sprint Speedweeks wins. He picked up his 13th on Monday—Night 3 of the annual classic. Even if Larson wins the next five nights in the Buckeye State, he would still fall 14 victories short of matching Blaney, the six-time Ohio Sprint Speedweeks champ.

The friendly rivalry started last year when Blaney jokingly called Larson “overrated” after Yung Money went on a 10-race winning streak. During Larson’s hiatus from NASCAR, he competed in 23 of the 44 scheduled All-Star Circuit of Champions races and won a series-best 13 features. 

“There’s probably nothing I can say that hasn’t been said over the last four years about his actual talent and skill,” Blaney said of Larson. “There’s always going to be somebody special in every sport. For a while, there was Michael Jordan. He was the most skilled guy in basketball. Well, there are thousands of guys his same size, his same weight and his same build, but there’s only one guy that can do what Michael Jordan did.

“It’s the same thing with Kyle. He’s just built differently than everybody else when it comes to skill behind the wheel of a race car. He’s just built different. There’s always going to be somebody who is special and different than everybody else—and he is that guy.”

The hoops analogy is fitting coming from Blaney. He started his collegiate basketball career at West Virginia one year after Jordan entered Carolina. Blaney turned down an offer from the L.A. Lakers in 1986 to concentrate on racing. In 2013, the Mountaineers inducted Blaney into UWV Hall of Fame.

Blaney, 57, followed his father Lou and brother Dave into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in  2016—the year after he won his last All Star Circuit of Champions title. The Hartford, Ohio, native, who currently works for the All-Star Circuit of Champions, won his sixth Ohio Sprint Speedweeks title three years after his induction. Between ASCOC and the World of Outlaws he scored 137 and 11 victories, respectively. 

Growing up three miles from Sharon Speedway, a 3/8-mile track that Blaney’s father owned and operated before Dave and a group of partners purchased the facility in 2002, provided the perfect proving grounds for the aspiring racer. 

“It will always be a part of my life,” Blaney said. “It’s my hometown track. The first race I ever ran was at Sharon Speedway. The first laps I ever made in a sprint car were here. It’s more special now that Dave’s involved in the race track and we do have a memorial race for dad.

“It’s an extremely cool facility right now. It races really good. They have great dirt on it and the shape is really good. The atmosphere is really cool and it’s a great place to come to.”

Over the last four decades, Blaney has seen grassroots racing change dramatically, but the level of attention now is at an all-time high. During the pandemic, sports fans were searching for entertainment and found plenty in the dirt racing ranks.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Blaney said. “When you’re sitting at home and looking for something to do, short-track racing was there. There was a lot of access for a lot of people and people fell back in love with the sport again.

“There’s a hometown track for a lot of people. There’s only so many tracks in NASCAR—and not that many hometown tracks like Sharon or Freemont or Attica or Williams Grove. That’s somebody’s hometown track that lives five miles away and that’s where they go every Friday and Saturday night. That’s where racing started and it’s never going to change.”