Larson raced for seven different car owners across five disciplines in 2009: dirt midgets, 410 winged sprint cars on dirt, 360 winged sprint cars on dirt, 360 non-winged sprint cars on pavement, and 410 non-winged sprint cars on dirt.
Sept. 6 remains the most vivid night in that year of learning. Larson, 17 at that point, took the wing off a 410 sprint car for the first time, against USAC’s national touring series, at the only track his parents feared: the half-mile Calistoga (Calif.) Speedway, a wide, blistering surface.
Larson started 15th, behind Kevin Swindell, and drove through the field to battle for third. Getting a little too frisky in the closing laps, Larson jumped the cushion twice and fell to 12th.
Swindell won, but The Larson Show commenced.
The following year, Larson latched on with Brent Kaeding, one of California’s greatest wheelmen, and his sprint car operation.
That November, Keith Kunz, the powerhouse midget team owner who helps feed the Toyota Racing Development pipeline, discovered his greatest project at the Oval Nationals in Perris, Calif., roughly 70 miles west of Los Angeles.
There, Larson made his appearance.
Once Kunz took Larson under his wing in 2011, one of Larson’s most prolific summers ensued: wins with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series, USAC National Midget Series, USAC National Sprint Car Series, and USAC Silver Crown Series. A 4-Crown Nationals sweep at Eldora Speedway topped it all off.
“Then, it was, ‘Get out of the way, what’s next?’” Mike Larson recalled.
The wins piled up, and so did the contracts. In 2012, he signed a developmental deal with Chip Ganassi. He won the first two stock car races he participated in, and then rolled to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (now the ARCA Menards Series East) championship that fall. By 2014, Larson made it to the NASCAR Cup Series.
It all sprang from those preeminent years in the dark.
“I think not moving [to Indiana] that early worked in his favor,” Tim Clauson, the father of late sprint car and midget star Bryan Clauson, said. “He got to learn his craft. He got to learn his craft, you know, kind of under the radar.”
Not much is under the radar anymore. Stepping five feet through a pit gate without someone clamoring for Larson’s attention is a rare occurrence.
What is under the radar is Larson’s community work, a regular commitment since 2017, but something he’s been even more focused on over the past year.
The reason why has been well-documented: Larson’s usage of a racial slur while iRacing last Easter rocked his world as he knew it. Fired from CGR and sent to NASCAR exile, Larson educated himself on racial history and sought counsel.
Much like the honing of his race craft, Larson built his understanding of the world in the dark.
The only thing that’s visible, really, is his charitable initiative called the Drive For 5 through his foundation. Larson has committed to contributing $5 for each lap he leads and $5,000 for each top-five finish he earns during the season.
The proceeds will fund five scholarships per year for students at the Urban Youth Racing School, provide meals for at least five families per day through The Sanneh Foundation, and support at least five communities per year through school grants provided by Hendrick Cares.
He’s raised $62,130 to date, and it doesn’t look like that number will plateau anytime soon.
“He’s destined to be the next great NASCAR superstar, and I think it’s a beautiful story to be told in life, about life,” Andretti said. “There’s ripples here and there, but you know what, you believe in yourself. This man represents the most humble individual. … He’s doing all of this in his own, quiet way.”
At Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland in April, Larson took a minute to enjoy some pre-race quiet. A crowd had gathered outside, but he comforted himself by a space heater and small-talked with a crew member in the covered trailer of late model car owner Kevin Rumley.
The previous night, Larson had denied Lance Dewease and his would-be 100th win at Williams Grove Speedway in a sprint car. The night before that, he finished on the podium with Jonathan Davenport and Tyler Erb in a dirt late model at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va.
The next day, Larson had to be at Richmond Raceway in Virginia for the Cup Series race.
“I’d race every day of the week if I could,” Larson said through a side smirk.
Larson has set out to accomplish two things in Rumley’s dirt late model. One, he’s using it as a schedule filler. The second, meanwhile, was proclaimed after he won in his second race in the discipline, against the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, last August at Port Royal Speedway.
“Some day, when I’m dead, I want to be known as one of the greatest, all-around race car drivers there ever was,” Larson said that night.
“To me, the greatest race car drivers in the world are guys like Andretti, Foyt, Tony Stewart, who all raced everything, and they were really good at everything,” Larson later added.
When Ganassi signed Larson in 2014, the car owner needed to know how to manage the unbridled drive within his Cup Series rookie. Ganassi approached Andretti with a question.
“Do you think I should let him do all those races?” Andretti recalled Ganassi asking him.
“Don’t you dare stop him,” Andretti shot back. “He’s my kind of guy. That’s all I can say.”
Larson has traveled from the Queen City – Charlotte, N.C. – to modest Lawrenceburg, Ind., and from the luxurious hills of Sonoma, Calif. to the quiet hills of Rossburg, Ohio, then to Fort Worth, Texas without a day in between.
He went back to Ohio for three consecutive nights of racing, went to Lebanon, Tenn., the following weekend, then jetted to Brandon, S.D., for a dirt doubleheader.
That was Larson’s trail since Memorial Day. Now he has a second Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday. A win would give him five Cup Series victories in six races, a clip that hasn’t been seen since Jeff Gordon’s monster 1998 season when he won seven times over a nine-race span.
Four nights of Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek follow, before a trek to Elkhart Lake, Wis., by Independence Day Weekend.
At this juncture, not even Father Time can put a stop to Kyle Larson, who is just trying to fulfill those words his father delivered across a dining room table 13 years ago.