The defending Cup Series champion, Kyle Larson, has played a big role in heightening the legacy of Hendrick Motorsports since he joined the team in 2021. On any given race weekend, he is the most likely driver from the team roster to end up in victory lane. While team owner Rick Hendrick is otherwise very happy with Larson, the only regret he carries is that he did not sign him earlier.
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Hendrick, Larson, and Jeff Gordon were a part of the recent Harvick Happy Hour podcast episode. Talking about the past, Hendrick revealed that he had his eye on Larson even when he was a driver for Chip Ganassi Racing. Hendrick Motorsports supplied engines to Chip Ganassi Racing back then, and this put them in the same room together often.
Even then, Larson wasn’t a man of many words. Hendrick recalled how he struggled to get him talking and continued to detail how he missed the golden chance to sign him before he ever got into a Chip Ganassi Racing car.
“Jeff [Gordon] actually brought him to me before he ever got in a car with Ganassi,” he said. “And that’s where I made a mistake. And if I had listened to Jeff, we would have been down the road further. But then, when I met with Kyle and Jeff, and I did, and we knew that he could get the job done if we put him in the right situation. Boy, did it work out the first year with 10 wins and a championship.”
Larson spent six full-time seasons driving for Chip Ganassi. He never quite got into his element in this period. It was only after joining Hendrick Motorsports that he began achieving his full potential. One can only imagine how many more titles he might have won had fate played a different card.
Gordon, who is now the team’s vice chairman, continued to talk about what surprised him the most about Larson. The veteran always knew that Larson was a talented driver. But what gave him absolute confidence was the insane work ethic that he saw from Larson. While pushing himself to extremes, he also made sure that his team did the same.
In Gordon’s words, “He’s on the edge, and that pushes Cliff [Daniels] to make sure that the car can live there on the edge, right? He can tune the car to get it to do what he wants it to do. They push one another to just constantly raise the bar with the speed of the car, the abilities of the team, and I mean, to me, when you’re around these guys, it’s pretty obvious why they’re successful.”
Currently in his sixth full-time season with the team, Larson has a long way to go before ever considering retirement. The sky will be the limit for him in this period.
