{"id":103608,"date":"2026-05-14T18:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/larry-larson-ready-to-defend-his-crown-at-75000-king-of-the-south-small-tire-invitational\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:44:06","slug":"larry-larson-ready-to-defend-his-crown-at-75000-king-of-the-south-small-tire-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/larry-larson-ready-to-defend-his-crown-at-75000-king-of-the-south-small-tire-invitational\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Larson Ready to Defend His Crown at $75,000 King of the South Small-Tire Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year ago, Larry Larson rolled into Shadyside Dragway for the Ronnie Buff Memorial Featuring King of the South as a relative unknown commodity in the small-tire racing world. But by the end of the weekend, the 5-time Hot Rod Drag Week winner was walking out with $75,000 and his own personal crown. Now he\u2019s ready to head back to Shelby, N.C. on May 21-24 to defend his title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Driving his Harts Charger-powered \u201966 Chevy Nova, Larson defeated Lyle Barnett in the Tommy Youmans-owned \u201cSalvage Title\u201d Mustang by a minuscule .004 margin of victory. Larson was moved to tears immediately following the win, calling it the biggest of his career. Now, with a year to reflect, Larson knows going back-to-back will be a difficult mountain to climb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat win was a big deal, and it always will be,\u201d says Larson. \u201cWe came in there without many runs on the car with small tires, so to go in there and beat the best of the best, that was huge. Now, a year later, everybody\u2019s three or four tenths faster. It\u2019s gonna be a completely different race this year. Everybody has picked up the pace, so it\u2019s going to be crazy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Larson carried his King of the South momentum throughout the rest of the season, culminating with a $40,000 True 10.5 win at the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, the first race of the Drag Illustrated Winter Series. As the popularity of 28\u00d710.5 racing has exploded, so has the competition, with cars now running in the 3.90\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did well. We won the Snowbirds, and we ran good,\u201d Larson says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying some different things to try and pick things up, but once again, everybody else has caught up. You\u2019ve got Russell Stone, Cory Reed, Kyle Canion\u2026everybody has picked up the pace. I\u2019m not going to go driving around some of these guys like last year. It wasn\u2019t a runaway last year, and it\u2019s darn sure not going to be one this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to the 64-car King of the South Invitational, the event will include the 26\u00d78.5-inch tire Knight of the South, Lil\u2019 Gangstas, SC Raceworks Street Racer 6.30 Index, Bracket Misfits 16-car invitational, IHRA Teen Championship Race, and the $7,500-to-win Kettle Kings Concessions Practice Tree Shootout on Friday night.<\/p>\n

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King of the South testing will be live streamed Thursday-Friday, May 21-22, via Spoold Media, while Saturday and Sunday\u2019s eliminations will be broadcast on FloRacing. Fans planning to attend the race in person will want to arrive early, as the event is likely to sell out. Last year, the fire marshal was forced to close the gates on Saturday afternoon as Shadyside had reached maximum capacity. The atmosphere of having such a huge crowd at a smaller venue makes the racing that much more intense, something Larson thoroughly enjoys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really cool venue. It\u2019s the [Ronnie Buff] Memorial race, which makes it special too,\u201d says Larson. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those backwood tracks that\u2019s been there forever, and the fans come out of the woodwork. They had to shut the gate [last year]. They quit taking on race cars at a certain point because the pits were full. It\u2019s just a crazy place. There\u2019s so many things about it that are just silly crazy, but in the same token, that\u2019s what makes it what it is. It\u2019s just a cool, cool event, and I\u2019m a really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spectator tickets will be available at the gate. Fans can watch testing on Thursday and Friday for $20 per day; eliminations take place on Saturday and Sunday, which are both $35 per day. A \u201cKing Pass\u201d is also available for $80, allowing spectators to attend all four days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans can subscribe to FloRacing at\u00a0www.FloRacing.com<\/a>\u00a0and watch the livestream via the following link: https:\/\/flosports.link\/4rO8QAL<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published on May 14, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Larry Larson Ready to Defend His Crown at $75,000 King of the South Small-Tire Invitational<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year ago, Larry Larson rolled into Shadyside Dragway for the Ronnie Buff Memorial Featuring King of the South as a relative unknown commodity in the small-tire racing world. But by the end of the weekend, the 5-time Hot Rod Drag Week winner was walking out with $75,000 and his own personal crown. Now he\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}