How a second-chance NASCAR ace is rebuilding his career

There comes a time in the lifecycle of elite sports when, to stay ahead of the competition, a team or series must reinvent itself by phasing out the old battle-scared heroes and bring in fresh and energetic new contenders. That helps reignite the torch and give the flame a new lease of life.

It's a tricky business, one that takes a sagacious mind to implement and ensure a seamless transition from the all-conquering era that has just closed to the next chapter. This is a journey that Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR's most successful team, has found itself on over the past few years, as its roster of drivers - arguably the biggest names over the past two decades of stock car racing - have all taken their last dance. They've passed on the duty of repeated excellence that has come to define Rick Hendrick's eponymous squad.

Grizzled veterans Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr were replaced with Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, respectively with William Byron brought aboard in 2018 to drive Gordon's famed #24 once Elliott moved over to the #9. Elliott stepped up to the mantle to assume the role of de facto team leader as septuple champion Jimmie Johnson lost his mojo in what was a painful last two full-time seasons, before departing at the close of 2020 to embark on an IndyCar programme.

Johnson came home fifth in his last race in the famous #48 Chevrolet, while Elliott's credentials as the new leader of the Hendrick pack were reinforced with a dominant win to secure himself a maiden Cup crown. It was the 13th overall, a NASCAR Cup record, for Hendrick.

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With Byron and Bowman (who will move across to the #48 this year) still in the Hendrick finishing school, it's the effective replacement for Johnson who is tipped to be the final piece in the jigsaw. And it's a chance that this generational talent very nearly threw away, legacy of an off-hand comment that left him sacked, banned and in disgrace last year.

A strong start to the 2020 campaign for Kyle Larson had resulted in his banking a solid three top-10 results from the first four races for Chip Ganassi Racing. Then the pandemic took a cleaver to the global sporting calendar. Larson was competing in an iRacing event along with fellow drivers from the American scene and, believing a loss of communication had occurred with his spotter and unaware his microphone was live, he used a racist slur.

Key sponsors such as McDonald's, Credit One Bank and Chevrolet ended their association, before Ganassi sacked him the next day. NASCAR revoked his licence, and ordered a period of sensitivity training before reinstatement would be considered.

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"I've grown a lot in the last year and have just surrounded myself with people who can help educate me; that was very important," Larson says as he enters his new era as the driver of Hendrick's #5 Chevy - incidentally, that's the race number that the first Hendrick driver Geoff Bodine used in the team's debut year of 1984.

"I know I'm never going to be able to convince every single person that I've changed... [but] hopefully over time, people will grow and get to have a different opinion of me" Kyle Larson

"Last year, hiring a diversity coach was probably the biggest thing to help educate myself, and going to Minneapolis [after the murder of George Floyd], and also doing a lot of things first-hand and in-person and trying to learn a lot."

This "first-hand and in-person" mindset included a visit to a racing school in Philadelphia that introduces black children to motorsport, and had been a partnership that Larson worked hard to cultivate during his Ganassi days. And because of that relationship he'd built, he felt it right to issue a "face-to-face" explanation to owners and students alike.

"We talked about difficult subjects for more than two hours, and I spent a lot of time listening," he wrote in the essay on his website. "[Owner] Michelle [Martin] educated me on the journey of black people in America and the ugly history of racism and derogatory slurs.

"I offered my apologies to [student] Jysir, his mum and the Martins for the pain I caused. Instead of the anger I expected, what I got in return was empathy."

In a world that now demands someone to be immediately cancelled for an act of discrimination, without allowing them the opportunity to repent and begin to make right their wrong, there will always be those who'll shun Larson. How does he respond to those who aren't willing to give him a second chance?

"People are always going to doubt me - I understand and accept that," he says. "I know I'm never going to be able to convince every single person that I've changed, and being back in NASCAR and having that platform to really get myself out there [will help].

"Hopefully over time, people will grow and get to have a different opinion of me. Nothing happens overnight, but especially gaining people's respect back doesn't."

The platform he has been given to make those changes is the highest one in NASCAR, and one he acknowledges will suffer "growing pains", but he is confident of challenging for race wins and championships, even as soon as this season.

"I think for myself at the beginning, being with a new team, crew chief and engineers, not having any practice and things, I am sure there will be some growing pains, the first month or so," he says. "But once we get the hang of each other, we should be really competitive and hopefully contending for lots of wins and being a championship contender. That's my hope for the season, but you really don't get a good idea until you get out there racing, and baring any crazy bad luck."

The NASCAR that Larson will step back into is a different beast from the series he last experienced in March 2020. To limit the chances of virus transmission in the garages, practice and qualifying was done away with, and drivers just turned up on a Sunday to race. This is something that new team-mate Elliott remarked surprised him when the season resumed at Darlington. And, having not been in a stock car for the best part of a year, it's a challenge that excites Larson.

"If I'd stayed in the seat last year, I feel this schedule would have benefited me the most, compared to other drivers, given my experience racing dirt cars," he explains. "Because really you have only three to five laps of practice and then you're on to racing, so that's trained me to adapt to things, and me being out of a race car for so long, and then jumping into a new team, I wish we did have practice.

"It would help us get up to speed quicker, but at the same time I've got three other team-mates I can lean on for support, and the same with my crew chief [Cliff Daniels] - he's probably got more resources than I had at Ganassi with just one team-mate. I think our race team is excited about a fresh face and a fresh outlook on things with me coming in, and I think my other team-mates are excited to see what I have to offer."

A key part of Larson inserting himself into the Hendrick roost will be his chemistry with Elliott, Byron and Bowman, and how the quartet of race winners work together on car set-ups, although he does point out the challenge of understanding and interpreting the raw data, compared to his new neighbours across the shop floor.

Whatever happens on-track and in the shop is the easy bit. Larson is a racing driver, and the muscle memory from stepping back into a 1500kg stock car will quickly return

In a new NASCAR, where the focus on representation and equality has been the heart of the message after the shocking events that sparked outrage in 2020, the ongoing rehabilitation of the series' fallen rising star is an important process.

Larson points out that he is pleased to see an increase during the off-season of drivers being pushed to complete their diversity training - "because inclusion is a big part of our sport" - and that the sanctioning body doesn't get "enough credit" for all it has done to promote its product to the huge sections of the public who have traditionally been nonplussed by it.

But for all NASCAR can do, it's now up to Larson to maintain and push even harder to restore his cracked reputation. He is thankful to Rick Hendrick for giving him the chance to return to competition in one of his prized machines, but the hard work begins now.

Whatever happens on-track and in the shop is the easy bit. Larson is a racing driver, and the muscle memory from stepping back into a 1500kg stock car will quickly return. He has not shirked responsibility and accountability for his actions and does not underestimate the challenge before him.

It would be easy for the Japanese-American to simply turn his back on repairing relations now that he has returned to the highest level, but that would be doing a disservice to the driver chosen to help chart the course of potentially the next decade in Hendrick's rich history.