Kyle Larson established his status as one of the greatest motorsports stars of the current age by winning the 2025 Cup Series championship. He also delivered to his carmaker, Chevrolet, its 34th Driver Championship. His contributions to the bowtie brigade have been immense over the years. This celebrated partnership, however, may never have happened.
Advertisement
Larson had almost formed his career with Toyota in 2011. At the time, he had been driving for the midget program of Keith Kunz Motorsports, backed by Toyota.
Larson narrated the sequence of events in a 2021 interview. “I remember them taking me to the Chicagoland Speedway and meeting with a bunch of different teams and stuff. All those teams needed money, obviously, and I was a nobody at that point,” he had recalled.
However, Toyota was not willing to have a driver development program for NASCAR at that point, and Larson couldn’t climb the ladder with them. And so when the chance to sign for Chip Ganassi Racing came by, he grabbed it and moved to the Chevrolet camp.
This miss was a reality check for Toyota. They soon began working on a driver development program. And Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell advanced his career through the program and is now one of Toyota’s strongest drivers in the Cup Series.
In the 2021 interview, Larson also thanked Chevrolet for the strong support it has provided to him. Larson added that Toyota certainly benefited from the lesson that they learnt by failing to support his transition to the Cup Series.
Why does Bell race Larson differently from others?
Both Larson and Bell came from similar backgrounds in dirt racing. So, they know what kind of skills each of them possesses. This makes Bell wary of racing Larson and his likes on pavements.
Bell admitted this in an interview with Frontstretch, stating that he employs different tactics to handle such drivers. “I think it’s just their tendencies,” he said.
“In the series, you get to learn about other drivers’ tendencies and what they do. And you know that if you have [Kyle] Larson lining up behind you, you don’t want to give him the top. If you have Kevin Harvick lining up behind you, you don’t want to give him the bottom,” added Bell.
Dirt racing drivers have a habit of moving across different lanes when racing. Drivers who have grown up on pavements, on the other hand, stick to a single lane. The awareness that Bell has of this is a key advantage.
Larson and Bell are examples of two drivers who took a different path from others in the sport. Their success shows that the capable can make it to the highest levels of the sport regardless of the route they have to take.
