{"id":123927,"date":"2025-08-06T15:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123927\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T15:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:33:09","slug":"turned-our-sport-into-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123927\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Turned our sport into a joke’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 20 years ago, Ricky Bobby<\/strong> and Jean Girard<\/strong> sprinted on foot to the finish line at Talladega Superspeedway after crashing on the final lap. Bobby\u2019s best friend Cal Naughton Jr.<\/strong>, who had crashed out along with the rest of the field, was named the official winner of the race. It was an entertaining end to \u201cTalladega Nights,\u201d and Kyle Larson<\/strong> was one of the many who enjoyed the film. <\/p>\n

Larson, however, isn\u2019t convinced that Talladega Nights had a positive impact on NASCAR<\/a><\/strong>. Appearing on Julian Edelman<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s \u201cGames With Names<\/a>\u201d podcast, Larson explained why he believes the film \u201cturned our sport into a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the movie. Think it did not do anything good for our sport. I think it turned our sport into a joke, unfortunately,\u201d Larson said. \u201cThat\u2019s gotta be one of the most popular racing movies. \u2026 But the rest of the world, I feel like that\u2019s what they think of our sport now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talladega Nights was a smashing success, grossing $163 million worldwide. It came out in 2006 at the height of NASCAR\u2019s popularity. That year, the Daytona 500 attracted 19.4 million viewers, making it the most watched NASCAR race of all-time. <\/p>\n

If you have cable, chances are you can find Talladega Nights on your guide on any given night. And of course, Reese Bobby<\/strong>\u2018s iconic line of \u201cif you ain\u2019t first, you\u2019re last\u201d is still being printed on t-shirts today. <\/p>\n

Kyle Larson talks \u2018Days of Thunder\u2019 sequel<\/p>\n

With the success of \u201cF1: The Movie,\u201d is the demand there for another NASCAR film? Those who would answer yes to that question are in luck. At the\u00a0F1\u00a0premiere in mid-June, Legendary movie producer\u00a0Jerry Bruckheimer<\/strong> spoke about a new\u00a0\u201cDays of Thunder\u201d being in the works<\/a>. Bruckheimer was the producer of the original\u00a0Days of Thunder\u00a0film that was released in 1990.<\/p>\n

Tom Cruise<\/strong> starred as Cole Trickle<\/strong>, a young NASCAR driver looking to make his way to the top of the Cup Series. Days of Thunder was a financial success as it made over $157 million worldwide. It also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound. Larson would love to do a cameo in the Days of Thunder sequel, he told Edelman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was with Jeff Gordon<\/strong> the other night and he\u2019s good friends with Tom [Cruise] and he went to the premiere of Mission Impossible,\u201d Larson said. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018We\u2019re doing it. We\u2019ve got to do another Days of Thunder.\u2019 I hope they do it. \u2026 I would absolutely be in it. I would like to be in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 20 years ago, Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard sprinted on foot to the finish line at Talladega…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-123927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114982551822770830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}