How Kyle Larson Fulfiled Longstanding NASCAR Promise With Hendrick Motorsports

Kyle Larson’s Short-Track Dominance May Yield Another NASCAR Record at Richmond

In just the third race on the calendar, Kyle Larson has sealed his spot in the playoffs and heads to the next 23 regular season venues with the sole aim of adding to his win tally. For the HMS driver, who is regarded as the best of the current generation, a longstanding promise and desire continues to be fulfilled each time he gets behind the wheel of the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro.

ESPN’s Ryan McGee was on the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download when he spoke about the legacy that Larson was creating and how he’d expressed his desire to drive a Hendrick car many years back to him. McGee was writing a story for E60 about Larson when the driver opened himself up during a session at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Larson had been a driver for Chip Ganassi Racing at the time. McGee narrated, “We did a big story years ago for E60. In the garage, at Charlotte, and they’re [Larson and his father] looking at the Hendrick cars going. ‘I’d just like one race in one of those cars just to see.” Larson’s expression came at the top of the many talks that were surrounding him about how his career might’ve turned out if he’d joined a top team like Hendrick or Team Penske instead of Chip Ganassi.

Thanks to the turn of events since McGee’s story, Larson doesn’t have to just imagine driving a Hendrick Motorsports car anymore. Not only is he a driver for the team but the star man as well. A Cup Series champion already, Larson champions Rick Hendrick’s outfit like few before him have done.

How does Kyle Larson like the Hendrick Motorsports car now that he has it?

Continuing his narration, McGee said that he’d met the driver during his championship run last year and questioned him about the experience of driving for Rick Hendrick. Larson had replied that it was even better than he’d imagined and that there’d been a whole layer of things that he didn’t understand before.

In McGee’s words, “He said, ‘There’s just a whole other level to this that I didn’t understand.’ And that’s how, you know, they win as many races as they have.” Larson has won 24 races in the Cup Series thus far and heads to Phoenix next for the 2024 season’s first short-track race. In just a few weeks from now, he will be all the talk of the town when he flies to complete the ambitious #hendrick1100 challenge.

Post Edited By: Ankit Sharma
Kyle Larson Ryan McGee

About the author

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Gowtham Ramalingam

Gowtham is a NASCAR journalist at The SportsRush. Though his affinity for racing stems from Formula 1, he found himself drawn to NASCAR's unparalleled excitement over the years. As a result he has shared his insights and observations by authoring over 3000 articles on the sport. An avid fiction writer, you can find him lost in imaginary worlds when he is not immersed in racing. He hopes to continue savoring the thrill of every lap and race together with his readers for as long as he can.

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