Was talking to a buddy at a dirt track last night, and he had a pretty interesting comparison.
He said he almost compares Larson in the racing community as almost having a Tiger Woods effect right now. Obviously a huge difference on so many levels, and not really comparable if you ask me, but I found it interesting.
If he enters a race somewhere, promoters are getting thousands more fans in attendance, dozens more car counts, added money, and there's a feeling over the whole place that you have to be dialed in and be the best you've ever been to have a chance, raising the competition to levels each venue has rarely seen.... and Larson usually still wins.
Your buddy almost certainly knows 100% more about small town dirt track racing more than I do. That being said I cannot wrap my head around the concept that Kyle Larson is having a bigger effect on racing, grassroots and up, than Tony Stewart did 20-10 years ago. The sport was bigger then and Tony was a bigger star in the sport. He was a star in the countries two biggest racing disciplines and he was still on dirt tracks during the week. He was the one that drew guys like Jimmy and Jeff to these events. Sportscenter was covering Tony Stewart winning at Eldora on a Wednesday then kicking ass on a Sunday. I hated the crap out of that dude, but he was a huge star with cross over appeal. Kyle Larson, very disappointingly, didn't have cross over appeal before his incident, and he sure as hell doesn't now. That's not to say that he won't get there, but he isn't yet. I think for motorheads what Kyle Larson is doing now is very cool, but I can't think he is even having a Fernando Tatis Jr. effect, much less a Tiger Woods one.
Oh, I 100% agree with you. His reference is more so about single events and what Larson does to them, not so much grassroots racing across the board.
One thing to note in what you're saying, racing is almost all PPV/subscription/stream based now (DirtVision, FloRacing, IMCA TV, MavTV, Racinboys, etc) and ESPN back in those days held multiple racing coverage contracts including USAC racing where Tony would stand out. ESPN was very supportive of racing across the board back then. CBS/CBS sports has made a few pushes in recent years as well.
Things that happen in racing circles today are typically only known w/ racing fans because I believe legally mainstream/sports media outlets cannot cover those PPV events/highlights besides maybe comments or social posts? Honestly not sure and could definitely be wrong, though.
**A side note because this post just made me think of it. FloRacing has a 24/7 stream and they show a lot of the old ESPN Saturday Night Thunder racing events and my god, the graphics and presentation are a real treat. Have enjoyed watching a lot of those, especially when Gordon or Stewart appear.