Kyle Larson medically cleared to resume NASCAR competition

Kyle Larson says doctors believe dehydration caused him to faint Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

The 22-year-old fainted while taking part in an afternoon autograph session, but immediately felt fine afterward. The episode followed Larson taking part in two rounds of practice totaling 105 minutes, and what he described as a frantic morning.

“It was just kind of a weird morning just because I was almost late to practice, so I just rushed myself that morning and didn’t take very good care of myself throughout the day and just ended up dehydrating myself,” Larson said in a teleconference with reporters Thursday. “Just got to do a better job of taking care of myself, and that should never happen again.”

As a precaution, Larson was hospitalized, first in Martinsville and later in the Charlotte, N.C., area, where he underwent a battery of neurological and cardiac tests before being released Monday night. All tests came back negative.

Both doctors and NASCAR cleared Larson to resume racing activities Thursday. He will compete when the Sprint Cup Series returns after its first off week of the season April 11 at Texas Motor Speedway. All three NASCAR national series are off this weekend in observance of the Easter holiday.

“They wanted to make sure there was nothing serious wrong with me, so they took their time and pretty much ran every test possible,” Larson said. “That’s the main reason why I wasn’t able to get there for Sunday’s race was just that there was a lot of tests to be ran.

“It sucks any time you can’t race, but I was happy that they were taking the time to make sure there wasn’t anything major wrong. I wasn’t upset too badly that I had to miss the race, and I guess if there’s a race you’ve got to miss, Martinsville is my least favorite track.”

Despite the spell, Larson wanted to race Sunday but did not receive medical clearance. Chip Ganassi Racing picked Regan Smith to drive Larson’s No. 42 car at Martinsville. Smith finished 16th in relief.

Throughout the ordeal, Larson said he was never overly concerned because he felt otherwise healthy. His only focus was getting back in the car as soon as possible.

“I never thought anything was wrong with me because I felt fine while I was sitting in the hospital,” Larson said. “Just was looking forward to the last test that they had to run so I could get out of there.

“I was never nervous about it being the end of my career or out for a while or anything like that. I had it pretty much set in my mind that I was OK.”