Kyle Larson lands in helicopter at North Wilkesboro Speedway

Kyle Larson arrived at the NASCAR All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in style. After qualifying for the Indy 500, Larson traveled to North Wilkesboro in a helicopter to make the race on time.

🚨 @KyleLarsonRacin has made it to @NWBSpeedway! pic.twitter.com/hpVSQYilbX

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) May 19, 2024

He's here. #AllStarRace pic.twitter.com/lqqk1CKiBG

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 19, 2024

Larson heads into the race with a lot of confidence as he qualified for the Indy 500 in P5. This gives him a good chance to win the big race in his debut.

“I think just a great team, really,” Larson explained after his final qualifying run. “They prepared an awesome race car that’s stuck to the race track that also has speed. So, qualifying went a lot better than I ever could have hoped or anticipated. Just proud of everybody at Arrow McLaren, proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports that’s been involved in this.

“Huge thank you to Rick Hendrick, Linda, the Jeffs, you know Jeff Gordon, Jeff Andrews, Cliff Daniels, everybody involved, Chad Knaus, everybody involved to make this whole thing possible. Now switch the mindset over to the heavy stock car and try to go figure out North Wilkesboro. So, excited to get there and chase a million bucks.”

How talented is Kyle Larson?

2024 has been a stong year for Larson who won the Cup Series title in 2021. He has won two races, finished second in two and finished in the top five in two additional races. It has led to him being in first in the Cup Series standings at the midway point of the season.

Former NASCAR star Kyle Petty recently appeared on Out of the Groove and talked about Larson’s talent. “I can go back to Tim Richmond, probably the most talented race car driver I ever saw,” Petty said. “Just sat in it, drive it. IndyCar, Sprint Car, Super Modified, I don’t care, he just could get it done. I think Kyle Busch is that same guy, same guy. Put him in anything and he can go get it done.

“Kyle Larson is a special talent and what I mean by that is, Tim came to Cup racing from open-wheel, from IndyCar and found a home here [at NASCAR]. And Kyle [Busch] has found a home here and he’s not ventured out that far,” Petty continued. “So we don’t really know what could Kyle Busch have been, what could Kyle Busch have done if he had come the route of Kyle Larson or come a different route like a Tim Richmond, somebody like that.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this story