Ever since that fateful day during the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season when Kyle Larson was dropped from Chip Ganassi Racing for using a racial slur online, the California native has not looked back. Nobody would have imagined the heights Larson would achieve in a little over four years in trying to right his wrongs and pull his career back on track.
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Since Larson joined forces with Rick Hendrick’s race team, ‘Yung Money’ stepped up to the occasion, claiming his first Cup Series title in 2021. Larson won the elusive title with a dominant run of performance, winning an unprecedented ten races during the year.
Fast forward to 2025, the avid dirt track racer clinched his 30th victory in the sport’s top tier after a characteristic drive last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His triumph from last weekend put Larson ahead of some of the greatest names in the sport in terms of the number of starts he took to achieve his 30 wins.
Sitting ahead of drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, and Kevin Harvick, to name a few, NASCAR fans reacted to the feat in typical fashion. “Imagine where Kyle would be if he drove for HMS from the start of his career,” wondered one fan.
He very easily could have 10-15 more
— Michael (@PaulSm_12) March 24, 2025
“And to think how many more he would have if he had been in the 5 car since the beginning of his Nascar career!! Not to mention the ones he woulda coulda/shoulda had if not for the mishaps/mistakes since being in the 5 car !!” exclaimed another, envisioning Larson’s statistical dominance if he had started out with Hendrick Motorsports in the first place.
“With old car he would be on pace to pass Gordon and many more,” opined one follower, hinting towards how the Next Gen era has slowed Larson’s progress to an extent, as it has with several other drivers to varying levels.
“Considering CGR cars weren’t that great either it’s an impressive start!” summed up one follower harking back to his days with the now defunct Chip Ganassi Racing team.
Larson is also one of the youngest drivers to win 30 races in NASCAR
Larson achieved his 30th victory last weekend at the age of 32 years, 7 months, and 20 days old last weekend in Miami. This puts him inside the top 5 youngest drivers list to have achieved the feat in the modern-day age of the sport. None other than Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon tops the table in this metric with his record of winning 30 races by the age of 26.
Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and Joey Logano take up the second, third, and fourth spots, respectively, further solidifying Larson’s rapid ascent into NASCAR’s history books after joining hands with HMS.
With the upcoming Martinsville Speedway event, one of the few races which Larson self-admittedly does not excel at, it remains to be seen if he can visit victory lane once again, just as he has done previously on one occasion at ‘The Paperclip’. The race goes live this Sunday at 3:00 pm ET.
