Kyle Larson is in rare company.
The 34-year-old became the 11th person to win back-to-back NASCAR championships, winning the title in Miami on Sunday.
“It’s really cool. The way our season went makes this one extra rewarding,” Larson told OutKick in a recent interview.
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Entering the Chase in September, Larson had not had a victory throughout a tumultuous up-and-down campaign. If he wasn’t finishing in the top 10 , he was finishing in the 20s and 30s. He had 12 finishes outside the top 20 and 14 inside the top 10 .
But when the calendar flipped, something clicked. He finished fifth at Darlington and then won the Enjoy Illinois 300 the following week. He then took second at Bristol, then won the Hollywood Casino 400 and finished second again in Las Vegas. Three weeks later, it was another checkered flag at Talladega.
“We weren’t really that good,” Larson admitted, adding that it took him and his team “months to get a grasp” on what his new car “needed.”
“By late spring, I was thinking, ‘OK, we can write this season off for a championship. Let’s just try to build to be better for next year.'”
Larson fell into the old “cliché” of patience, taking things week by week and anything else similar for any NASCAR driver.
“But it was really true for us this year,” he said.
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And when September hit, it was full speed ahead, no pun intended.
“Then it snowballed. We kept getting good run after good run, which turned into a couple of wins. Suddenly, we were leading the points, and it was, ‘Wow, this happened quickly.’
“That’s what makes me most proud about this season. From start to finish, it was a lot of hard work and grinding, and all four of our Hendrick Motorsports teams coming together. It was rewarding for sure—probably one of the most rewarding championships we’ve had,” the now three-time title winner said.
Winning in this sport is rare. Even Larson said one win this season would have been nice. But this is now three times Larson has reached the mountaintop.
Now, Larson wants to become the third person to get three in a row.
“I think we have a great foundation as a team. We proved that this year, as we won a championship with not the fastest car. At no point in the year did we have the fastest car, but we had the best team,” Larson said.
“I think you just carry on with what we’ve built to this point. Obviously, you want to fine-tune things and get the cars better. You fine-tune your people, but we have a really good base. You stay true to our process and see if we can three-peat.”