Kyle Larson shared his thoughts on the Knoxville Nationals and NASCAR’s night race at Richmond taking place on the same night.

Knoxville Raceway announced earlier this month that the 2026 360 Knoxville Nationals would take place from August 6-8, the Capitani Classic would take place on August 9th, and the 410 Knoxville Nationals would be held from August 12-15.

A week after Knoxville announced their schedule, NASCAR announced their 2026 schedule and revealed that its night race at Richmond would take place on Saturday, August 15th, the same date as the 410 Knoxville Nationals finale. To be clear, this year’s night race at Richmond took place on the third weekend in August the same as the upcoming 2026 race.

Larson spoke with members of the NASCAR media including Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass about the schedule conflict. He said, “I forgot that Knoxville is moving their date back so when I had originally seen the schedule a few weeks ago I was like, ‘This is good. I’ll be able to spend lots of time there.’ But it just kind of is what it is.”

When asked if it sucks they didn’t coordinate the dates, Larson answered, “It’s two different series and they both have to worry about themselves. It’s fine. It shouldn’t revolve around me anyways.”

Kyle Larson said he has missed the Knoxville Nationals previously and so he didn’t seem too distraught that in 2026, Cup will race on the same night at Richmond as the Knoxville Nationals finals. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/AXPN7jS5VN

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 23, 2025

It is still possible that Larson competes in the Knoxville Nationals albeit it’s unlikely he would compete in the finale on Saturday night. A Knoxville Nationals spokesman told Matt Weaver, “They could always enter and run their qualifying nights. If they do well and qualify for the A Main on Saturday and then can’t make it back on Saturday night, their cars are locked in, but if there is a driver change the car would have to start at the tail.”

The spokesman added, “We had this happen with Rico back in 2015 when he was racing in the Truck series. Paul Silva was Rico’s crew chief at the time. They had a crew guy (Trevor Canales) sit in the car, start the race at the rear of the field and park it so they could collect start money.”

Just checked in with Knoxville Raceway about the new Cup schedule with a Saturday night race at Richmond on Nationals weekend.

Knoxville Nationals date is set in stone. ‘It is what it is,’ I was told.

“They could always enter and run their qualifying nights. If they do well…

— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 21, 2025

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