Autosport 2021 Top 50: #8 Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson wasn’t racing a year ago due to a suspension, but capped a magical comeback season with his 10th win of the year in the Phoenix finale that clinched his first NASCAR Cup championship.

The 29-year-old was suspended from NASCAR and fired by Chip Ganassi Racing last April for using a racial slur during a public iRacing event. He sat out the remainder of the 2020 season, with a return to NASCAR never a certainty.

PLUS: How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory

After fulfilling the requirements to lift his suspension, Hendrick Motorsports added Larson to its four-driver Cup team for 2021 and he capitalised on the opportunity to produce the most dominant Cup season since 2007.

The extracurricular activities that underline Larson’s star credentials

Kyle Larson not only completed a stunning NASCAR comeback by winning his first Cup Series title in 2021, but he also capped an extraordinary season of racing success across multiple motorsport disciplines in the United States.

In addition to the career-best 10 points-paying wins (plus victory in the All-Star race) that Larson amassed in Cup across several types of tracks in his first season at Hendrick Motorsports, he engaged in extracurricular racing events throughout the year thanks to team owner Rick Hendrick relenting on a previous policy of having his Cup Series drivers focus solely on that discipline.

NASCAR's return to dirt racing in 2021 made Larson feel at home, given his sideline in short track dirt racing

Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

“I never thought racing for Hendrick Motorsports that I would get to race a single dirt race in a year, let alone as many as I have this year,” said Larson, who twice managed to win three Cup races in succession, and tied Tony Stewart’s 2011 record of winning five playoff races.

Larson won the 2021 edition of the Chili Bowl Nationals, the most prestigious midget car race in the US; won the Knoxville Nationals and Kings Royal races – two elite sprint car events; and also claimed victory in the premier Prairie Dirt Classic Late Model event. In all, he collected 29 wins in 87 racing starts.

“I’m just a very lucky guy who gets to race in the best race cars of all the series that I get to run in,” Larson says. “I’m in the best seat in the Cup Series. I’m in the best seat in a sprint car. I’m in the best seat in a late model. I’m in the best seat in a midget, whether it be with Chad Boat or my old car.”

He even threw his hat into the ring for a drive in Formula 1’s post-season Abu Dhabi rookie test. Now that would have been something…