MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson, 31, is the oldest driver in the Championship 4 for the NASCAR Cup Series Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.
He is also the only one of the four that has previously won the NASCAR Cup Series Championship with his impressive season in 2021.
“It’s odd,” Larson responded. “I’m the oldest at Hendrick Motorsports, the oldest in this final four. Maybe I am getting old. I don’t feel old.”
Larson is far from old. He’s just getting warmed up, at the peak of his racing career, one that has taken him from the short tracks of sprint car racing during the week and the behemoth that is the NASCAR Cup Series on the weekends.
Larson advanced into the championship race with a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 15. He’ll face off against Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and his Hendrick teammate William Byron.
The highest finishing driver out of those four wins the Cup Series Championship.
Larson arrived in Phoenix his typical self, unaware of the pressure.
“I don’t remember feeling like overly anticipated the last time I was in the final four,” he said. “I feel pretty calm, neutral. I feel like I typically am about most things. Right now, I’m calm and all that.
“I think as you get closer to the race, I remember that’s when the nerves kind of pick up. Driver intros, stuff around that, I think that’s when I remember the nerves kind of kicking in.
“I imagine it will probably be the same this weekend.”
Larson has been through this experience before and so has Hendrick Motorsports, the top team in NASCAR’s 75-year history in terms of championships and race victories.
If Larson or Byron win the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, it would be the 15th for the team in 39 seasons.
As the only driver in the Championship 4 that has previously won the NASCAR Cup Series title, Larson doesn’t believe that gives him an edge.
“I don’t think it really means anything,” he said. “When I won the championship in ’21, it was totally different race car, the style of race was different, pit stops were different, the way you executed the race was different. I don’t really think it matters at all.
“I view us all as equals. Even the guys who are in the final four for the first time, I don’t look at them any differently than myself or Bell who have been in the final four twice. I think it’s anybody’s kind of race.”
Usually in championships, especially in other sports, experience matters.
Once again, Larson downplays that experience as being a deciding factor for the title.
“Although a couple of them haven’t been in the final four before, it’s no big deal really,” Larson explained. “We’ve all been a part of this race our whole careers, even though we may not have been in the final four, we’ve been a part of the event.
“You get a sense for what the style of race is for those four guys. You see them doing their championship media day stuff.
“At least from I remember in 2021, nothing was surprising or anything like that. I don’t think it matters if you’ve been in zero times or every year. It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t think it matters. I mean, I think we’re all pretty similar people. I don’t think it matters to any of us.”
Special Atmosphere
As Sunday draws closer, Larson admits he feels nerves, but he doesn’t feel nervous.
“I’m not sure if it’s this or bust,” said the driver from Elk Grove, Calif. “You just try to put in the work to get yourself in this opportunity. Hopefully you prepared yourself well enough to try and win the championship.
“I wouldn’t say nervous, but nerves. I just remember the atmosphere being, like, incredible.
“Me being a West Coast guy, I just felt like the crowd was really behind me before the race two years ago. I just thought it was a really cool atmosphere. I just remember getting kind of butterflies and getting almost like emotional knowing the size of the race that was upcoming, what it would mean to my career and all that.
“Feeling that atmosphere again on Sunday will probably be fun. Then once you strap in, though, once you strap in the car and roll off, you kind of get at peace with everything again.”
Larson is a driver who hates to overthink things. That is why he keeps himself so busy with his active schedule of short-track racing.
As former IndyCar driver Jimmy Vasser once said about the Indianapolis 500, “You can’t win it; unless you’re in it.”
The same holds true about the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Larson is in it, and that matters.
“There are a number of guys that didn’t make the final four that are deserving of being in this position,” Larson said. “I think you can make a case for any of us four to win the championship.
“I think we all respect each other on the race track. We all respect each other’s abilities, teams’ abilities. Yeah, it should be a fun race.
“Obviously, I would love to come out on top, but I also understand it will be tough.
“Everybody is going to have a shot.”