Literally a week ago, Jeff Gordon told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he wishes Kyle Larson wouldn’t participate in so much extracurricular racing activity at least during the playoffs, citing just a little bit of concern that it would be a distraction.
Since then, Larson went on to win a championship in the High Limit Sprint Car Series on Tuesday, completed his Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation program on Thursday, and won his way into the Cup Series championship race on Sunday at Las Vegas.
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Naturally, Larson returned to the dirt on Monday to test his Kevin Rumley-owned Super Late Model in advance of his off-season racing program, something he hopes to do as a two-time Cup Series champion.
“I mean, it’s been a memorable week,” Larson said after winning on Sunday. “A little bit crazier than normal, maybe. But my weeks stay pretty crazy. It felt pretty normal in a way.”
Just doing Kyle Larson things
It’s almost becoming painfully cliché to detail his exploits over the past three seasons. Since joining Hendrick Motorsports with crew chief Cliff Daniels, Larson has won 17 races in 105 starts including three crown jewels in the Coca-Cola 600, Bristol Night Race, and Southern 500. They won the 2021 Cup Series championship together.
Kyle Larson has won two Knoxville Nationals with team owner crew chief Paul Silva, in 2021 and 2023. They won an abbreviated Sprint Car championship this year, and regardless of who co-owns it, he had to beat the exceptional Rico Abreu and crew chief Ricky Werner to do it.
He even won a Rolex 24 at Daytona back in 2015.
These are all good cars, of course.
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“I don’t know,” Larson said on Thursday. “I’m just fortunate I get to drive really good race cars in all forms of racing that I compete in with great crew chiefs, car owners. Rick Hendrick, his equipment is as good as it gets. Cliff Daniels, in my opinion, is the best crew chief in the Cup Series. Sprint car stuff. Paul Silva is the best team owner, and greatest crew chief in sprint car racing. Dirt models I run for Kevin Rumley, top of his game, considered the best, if not the best.
“I’m just very lucky that I get to be driving these cars. Obviously, it takes a lot of hard work on my part, all that, to get to that point. But still, I’m very fortunate to be in the position that I am in all different types of racing.”
There was a time, when Larson first started negotiating with Gordon and Rick Hendrick, that it looked like Larson wouldn’t be allowed to race in all these disciplines — a similar fate that befell Tony Stewart when he made it to the Cup with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Kyle Larson made the ask, with no expectation that Hendrick would say ‘yes,’ but Gordon went to bat for the concept and all of motorsports has reaped the benefits of that decision.
“We always did not want them in anything other than a Cup car or Xfinity car,” Hendrick said. “When I first started talking to Kyle, he convinced me that it made him sharper.”
Humorously, before Larson had even signed a contract, Hendrick saw a crash compilation video featuring his soon-to-be driver and called him.
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” Larson said.
It didn’t make a difference, ultimately.
“Jeff and I have talked about it,” Hendrick said. “I think it does make him sharper to get in other things and drive them. I know one thing — he would be hard to handle if he wasn’t in those kind of cars. I’d have more problems with him, I think.”
He said that last part with a laugh but Larson validated it again on Sunday by punching his ticket to the championship race. Maybe he will win the championship, maybe he won’t, and the same goes for whatever happens in Indianapolis come next May but this is something a race car driver hasn’t done since AJ Foyt.
They haven’t been allowed to until Kyle Larson. Â
Perhaps in time, it will become the norm.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.