Kyle Larson changes diet, no more tacos and pizza

A fainting spell March 28 is forcing Kyle Larson to modify his diet, which means no more skipping breakfast and gorging on tacos and pizza.

Larson was signing autographs the day prior to the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway when he fainted. He was taken immediately to a local hospital than later to a Charlotte, N.C. hospital for extensive neurological and cardiac tests and missed that weekend’s race.

Doctors eventually gave Larson a clean bill of health, citing dehydration as the cause of the incident. The morning he fainted the 22-year-old had overslept and was in hurry. Going forward, Larson was instructed to be more mindful of his eating habits and take better care of himself.

“I hate breakfast, so I’ve got to find somethings that I like to eat in the morning and just make sure I drink enough fluids,” Larson said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. “I feel like I take decent care of myself. That morning was a little bit different because I overslept and had to rush out to the car, but we should be good.

“When you are young, you think you are bulletproof and that is just one little instance that shows you that you aren’t. You’ve got to take care of yourself as you get older, definitely going to try and do a better job of that.”

Larson tweeted a photo of himself eating a chicken wrap and holding a sports drink for lunch Friday, which he directed towards car owner Chip Ganassi, who jokingly told Larson to “lay off the pizza and tacos diet,” according to ESPN.

“It stinks when you come here to Texas and they have the Fuzzy’s Tacos that are really good and you can’t go over there and eat them probably,” Larson said.

Because of an off weekend, Texas is Larson’s first race since his spell at Martinsville. He took part in a test Wednesday at Richmond International Speedway and felt no ill effects afterward.

With high speeds, its worn surface and multiple grooves, Texas is a track that plays to Larson’s strengths. He was fast in both races last season, finishing fifth and seventh, and expects to be a contender Saturday night.

“I like Texas because it is pretty bumpy,” Larson said. “You can move around on the race track, you can run the bottom all the way to the top. (Turns) 1 and 2 are really tricky to run the top because there are so many bumps. It’s just a technical race track that I seem to do well at. I hope we can go out there this weekend and improve on those top 10’s and turn them into two top-five finishes this year.”