KING OF THE SOUTH • 2025 arlier this year, Larry Larson was driving his Harts Charger-powered’ 66 Chevy Nova at the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod. On Sunday, May 25th, he used that same car to conquer arguably the most competitive small-tire field ever assembled at the $ 75,000 King of the South invitational, headlining the Ronnie Buff Memorial weekend at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina.
Larson defeated Lyle Barnett, driving the Tommy Youmans-owned“ Salvage Title” Mustang, in an incredible side-by-side race that saw Larson take the stripe by a miniscule. 004 margin of victory. Larson was moved to tears after the win, calling it the biggest of his career after initially being on the alternate list to get into the race.
“ I thought it’ d be cool to get into this deal, but figured I didn’ t have a snowball’ s chance in hell,” admits Larson.“ When we got here, we only had 16 runs on small tires. I’ m at a loss for words because it came around so good. The car worked amazing – we fought the 60 foot all weekend, but if we can get that down to what some of these other guys are running, they’ re gonna like me even less.”
Larson’ s run through eliminations was impressive to say the least – six rounds against top-level competition with zero bye runs. He defeated“ Turbo John” Phillips in round one of the 64-car field Saturday night, advancing on to Sunday, where his performance was even better.
En route to the semifinals, he outran Street Outlaws star and 2024 Snowbirds Pro Mod winner Kye Kelley, 2024 King of the South finalist Ryan Mitchell, and 2025 Carolina Cash Days winner Shelby Lynn, all by a car-length or more. In the semis, Larson beat Ryan Hendrickson in his“ Foodstamps” Mustang, leading to the final-round showdown against Barnett.
“ I’ m not taking anything away from anybody, but it’ s weird,” Larson says.“ I just had a crazy feeling on Thursday when we got here that this could be a really good weekend for us. Going through all the runs in testing, and then once eliminations started, would I have wanted anybody in any particular order? No. But the chips fell right and the car sped up every round, and everything worked out just like you draw it up on paper. That doesn’ t happen very often in drag racing.”
Barnett, meanwhile, went through Andy Wilabay, Wajdy WK, Michael Nale, Larry Houck, and Isaac Preston on his way to the finals. It was a huge weekend for Barnett, who also competed in the Lil’ Gangstas class all three days in his infamous“ Beer Money” Mustang.
After winning Lil’ Gangstas on Friday night, Barnett saw himself in the finals again on Sunday, giving himself the opportunity for a huge double-up. Unfortunately, he came up just short in both final rounds, running under the 5.30 index in Lil’ Gangstas, and of course, the. 004 loss to Larson. While Barnett’ s performance was impressive, he was understandably emotional afterwards.
“ It stings,” says Barnett.“ It’ s tough, man. This one’ s gonna hurt for a little bit. It was pretty remarkable to be able to do what we did with Salvage Title, to be honest. That’ s a front-running radial car that we took a big swing at with a set-up, and it worked. And Beer Money did what Beer Money does. I had room, but just took a little too much stripe there in the final. But the Salvage Title loss hurts. I wanted this one bad, and we had a really close race. Larry’ s a good friend of mine. He’ s been doing it a long time – he’ s 65 freakin’ years old – and he’ s still out here running good. [ Tuner ] Lee White and my crew worked their asses off all week, and we had a really good time. I consider this one of my home tracks. I’ ve won a lot of races here, and I really wanted to add this one to the mantle, but it just wasn’ t our day. We’ ll have to wait until next year.”
For Larson, perhaps the most impressive part
Larry Larson celebrates in the winner’ s circle with Corey Stamper, Teresa Collins, Jeff Scott, Seth Buff, and Lennie Buff.
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