Editor’s Note: NASCAR is celebrating its 75th anniversary. SPEED SPORT was founded in 1934 and was already on its way to becoming America’s Motorsports Authority when NASCAR was formed. As a result, we will bring you Part 74 of a 75-part series on the history NASCAR.
Kyle Larson began the season under the microscope of social scrutiny and ended it by winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
The 29-year-old went from being suspended from NASCAR in 2020 to enjoying the most successful season any NASCAR Cup Series driver has had since Jimmie Johnson in 2007. That was the last time a driver won 10 Cup Series races in a season.
Larson’s season of redemption in NASCAR could also be called a season for the ages.
The Elk Grove, Calif., native is also a throwback to the days of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby Allison and Tony Stewart when racers competed throughout the week and earned legions of grassroots race fans across the United States.
When he won the NASCAR Cup Series title in a dramatic last-lap battle with Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin at Phoenix Raceway, it was his 29th victory of the season. In addition to 10 Cup Series races and the NASCAR All-Star Race, Larson won 19 events while racing three different types of dirt-track cars.
Among those were some of the most prestigious events in the sport, including the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals winged sprint car races, the Chili Bowl Nationals and BC39 for midgets and the Prairie Dirt Classic for dirt late models.
He did all of that while overcoming the fallout from having used a racial slur during an online sim race in April 2020 that led to his suspension and the loss of his NASCAR ride with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Larson turned things around off the race track in a story of redemption as impressive as winning a championship.
“If I were to go back and think about it, there were a lot of points last year where I didn’t think I would get to race in another NASCAR Cup Series race or stock car race in my life,” Larson said. “I accepted it and moved on and was excited about a life as a sprint car racer because that is something I always wanted to do, just not at 28 years old.
“Not even a year later, to see the success I’ve had in the Cup Series and a championship is surreal, but it’s not something I’ve thought of too often.”
Once reinstated by NASCAR, Larson signed with Hendrick Motorsports and the pieces were in place to contend for the title.
Larson won in only his fourth start for Hendrick Motorsports at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. He didn’t win again until the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 30. It was the first of three consecutive victories.
He won again at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l in August, but he saved his best for the playoffs.
Larson Larson won at Bristol Motor Speedway and then recorded three straight victories at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway.
That set up the dramatic championship race at Phoenix. Larson won the pole in one of NASCAR’s rare qualifying sessions during the pandemic. That gave him the first pit box and that proved crucial on the final pit stop of the race.
His Hendrick crew got him out of the pits ahead of Truex, Hamlin and Chase Elliott, and Larson took it from there.
“I knew the only way we were going to pull it off is if our pit crew got us off as a leader and damn, they did,” Larson recalled. “That was just crazy. I tried to do as good of a job as I could down pit road without speeding, getting my sign as good as I could, and those guys nailed the pit stop and got us out the leader.”
Larson beat Truex to the finish to secure the title.
The fans cheered, the tears flowed and Larson’s incredible comeback from adversity was complete.
“Eighteen months ago, I didn’t think that I was ever going to be in a Cup car again,” Larson said. “Strapping in for the Daytona 500 didn’t even seem real, let alone winning the championship. It’s definitely been a journey, a roller coaster. But I’m very thankful for my second chance and every opportunity I’ve been given in these last 18 months.
“Life is a crazy thing and you’ve just got to stay positive through it all and everything will, hopefully, work out for you.”
Truex won four races for Joe Gibbs Racing and finished second in the standings, while his JGR teammate Hamlin was third on the strength of two victories.
Larson’s teammate, 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, finished fourth and also won two races.
Another Hendrick Motorsports driver, Alex Bowman, won a career-best four times but wound up 14th in the standings. Ryan Blaney won three times en route to a seventh-place finish for Team Penske and Kyle Busch won twice for JGR.
Single event winners during the 36-race season were Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, William Byron, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Bubba Wallace, A.J. Allmendinger and Michael McDowell, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 for Front Row Motorsports.