Kyle Larson: The Dirt-Track Kid Who Became a Two-Time NASCAR Cup Champion
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Driver Spotlight - where we pull one Cup Series driver into the garage, look under the hood at their career, and tell you what makes them tick. This week: the number 5.
The Short Version
Kyle Larson is a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who might be the most naturally gifted racer of his generation. He grew up racing sprint cars and midgets on dirt in California, lost his ride in 2020 after a serious mistake, then came back and won a championship in his very first season with Hendrick Motorsports. He can win in anything with wheels, from a dirt midget to a Cup car to an Indy car. If you only know one thing about Larson, know this: put him in a race car and he is a threat to win, no matter the track or the surface.
From California Dirt to the Cup Series
Kyle Larson was born on July 31, 1992, in Elk Grove, California. He was on a race track almost before he was in grade school, running sprint cars and midgets on dirt all over the West Coast and then all over the country. That dirt background is the whole story with Larson. It taught him how to control a car that is sliding sideways and low on grip, and that skill has followed him everywhere he has raced since.
He climbed the NASCAR ladder fast. In 2012 he won the K&N Pro Series East title. In 2013 he was the Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, the first Asian American to win a national-series rookie award, and he made his Cup debut that October at Charlotte. He went full time in the Cup Series in 2014 with Chip Ganassi Racing and took home Rookie of the Year. His first Cup win took a while to come, but when it did, at Michigan in August 2016, it was worth the wait. It was his 99th career start.
The Fall and the Comeback
In April 2020, during an online iRacing event, Larson used a racial slur that was picked up on a live broadcast. He was suspended, lost his ride at Chip Ganassi Racing, and lost his sponsors. It was the low point of his career and he owned it. He completed sensitivity training, spent time doing community work, and was reinstated by NASCAR at the start of 2021.
Rick Hendrick took a chance on him and signed him to drive the number 5 for the 2021 season. What happened next is one of the great comeback stories in the sport. In his first year at Hendrick, Larson won ten races, led more than 2,500 laps, and closed out the season as Cup Series champion. He went from out of the sport to the top of it in a single year.
Signature Moments
That 2021 run had a wild statistic buried inside it. Larson became the first driver in Cup Series history to win on three different road courses in the same season. On a schedule that used to be all left turns, the dirt kid turned into a road-course monster too.
Then came 2025. Larson made the Championship 4 and went to Phoenix needing a win to lock up a second title. He did not win the race. He finished third, behind Ryan Blaney, but a third-place run was enough to take the championship on points over Denny Hamlin. It was a strange, tense way to win a title, and Larson said afterward that beating a friend for it left him with mixed feelings.
Kyle Larson speaks about the empathy he feels for Denny Hamlin, who he's good friends with, and the conflicting emotions of winning a Cup championship but doing so at Denny's expense.
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) November 3, 2025
"There's definitely a large piece of me that feels really bad and sad. But at the same point,… pic.twitter.com/JH1TnVlxdQ
By the Numbers
Here is the career so far, laid out in the parts that matter. Every number below is a Cup Series career figure.
Off the Track
Larson still lives to race away from the Cup Series. In a normal year he runs dozens of dirt races on top of his NASCAR schedule, and in 2024 he tried the hardest thing in motorsports: the Double. That means running the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Rain washed out his shot at the Coke 600, but he did make the Indy 500 field and finished 18th, good enough to be named Indy 500 Rookie of the Year.
At home, Larson is a family man. He and his wife Katelyn married in 2018, and they have three kids, Owen, Audrey, and Cooper. His mother is Japanese American, and his grandparents were held in the internment camps during World War II, a piece of history he has spoken about openly. He also runs the Kyle Larson Foundation and its Drive for 5 campaign, which supports the Urban Youth Racing School in Philadelphia and other programs that get kids into racing and STEM.
The Bottom Line
Kyle Larson is the rare driver who can win in anything, on any surface, and he backs it up with two Cup titles and a comeback story that most people never get to write. He made a serious mistake, answered for it, and came back better than ever. Whatever he does from here, he is already one of the most complete racers the sport has ever seen.
Ride with the number 5. A few fan favorites in stock right now:
- Kyle Larson #5 2025 Cup Series Championship Official Champ Tee
- Kyle Larson #5 2026 Cup Series 2-Sided Schedule Tee
- Kyle Larson #5 2025 Throwback Snapback White Hat
- Kyle Larson #5 2025 Vintage Blue Hoodie
- Kyle Larson #5 Pewter Blue Number Signature Keychain
See it all in the Kyle Larson collection. New driver spotlights drop every Thursday.
