EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsIt's not that Kyle Larson doesn't appreciate his first two NASCAR Cup titles. It's not that he doesn't believe that he deserved his first two Cup titles or that he needs to defend his first two Cup titles.But his third, the one he clinched early in Sunday's 2026 season finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, this feels a little more grounded than the first two did. This one, the title that moves him onto one of the rarest of stock car racing accomplishment echelons, this one is indisputable. There is no asterisk. There is no adjoining sub-headline that threatens to undermine the lead story."This one is much more rewarding," Larson said Monday, just shy of 24 hours after being told over the radio that he had mathematically clinched the Cup at end of the race's first stage. "I don't feel there's no reason to feel bad for any other competitor. Our team just did a super good job this year or this Chase, anyways. But you know, the year to build to be ready for the big moments in the Chase, and yeah, we earned it. We executed better than everybody. So, it was a great 10 weeks. It was fantastic."It was better than fantastic. It was dominance that ultimately led to a historic payoff. After failing to win during the 26-race "regular season," he took three of the year's final nine checkered flags. That included a dramatic last-lap dash from mid-pack to win at Talladega that didn't clinch the Cup with two races remaining but certainly deflated the hopes of those trying to catch him. In 10 postseason races he posted seven top-six finishes, and his only non-top-10 efforts were after a crash at Phoenix the week prior to winning Talladega and a 12th-place cruise-control run after icing the title at Homestead."After the first Chase race at Darlington, we had a good run and felt like we were contending and called the race aggressively and strategically the right way," Larson recalled of the opening postseason race, the Southern 500, where he led 99 laps and finished fifth behind eventual title runner-up Christopher Bell. "That gave me confidence because I kind of felt like the No. 5 team again. It had been over a year since I'd had that feeling. That carried over to win at Gateway the next week and really from that point forward, was like, OK, we've got a legit shot at winning the championship here."That championship has boosted Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels into some of NASCAR's most revered Hall of Fame-worthy real estate. Since the sanctioning body first went into business in 1949, only 11 drivers have won three or more Cup titles. Larson joins six others in the Three Cup Club, standing alongside current rival Joey Logano. The other five are already in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, including one of Larson's longtime heroes, Tony Stewart. Adding to the impressiveness of the feat is that Larson has won all three of his titles in only a six-year span and he is the first to win back-to-back Cups since another former Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson 16 years ago.Johnson is among the very short list of drivers who have won more Cups than Larson. Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Johnson are all seven-time champs. Jeff Gordon is next on the list with four. Gordon is Larson's racing hero and serves as vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports; he also happens to be Larson's boss."He's going to pass me," Gordon predicted Sunday night. "I've already come to that conclusion. Kind of knew that when he was coming to Hendrick Motorsports. He's special.""Jeff has gotten to do a lot of celebrating throughout his career between wins and championships, and now on the ownership side of it," Larson explained Monday. "He was one of the main guys that I cheered for growing up. So to get to stand next to him and take photos with a championship trophy in the NASCAR Cup Series is surreal. So, it's just amazing where your life can kind of take you."Larson's life has taken him on a path that many had foreseen years ago, christened "Yung Money" as a hot-shoe teen who, like Gordon decades earlier, came from Northern California to light up the same short tracks of the Midwest that birthed the legendary likes of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Stewart.He made his NASCAR Cup debut in 2013 under the tutelage of Chip Ganassi and won races, but was dogged by questions of, "Yeah, but what could he do if he was racing at a place like Hendrick Motorsports?!"In 2020, amid the restrictions of the COVID pandemic, Larson signed on to join Hendrick in 2021 but was also suspended by Ganassi and NASCAR for using a racial slur on a live iRacing broadcast. When he won his first Cup with Hendrick one year later, sponsors were still wary of a connection to Larson, despite having undergone mandatory sensitivity training and issuing multiple apologies to the public, his fellow drivers and also to the kids of a racing diversity program he had worked with previously.His second Cup title one year ago came with a very difficult kind of guilt. Denny Hamlin seemed to have his elusive first title won as the season finale reached its final laps. Then a late caution caused him to lose the lead and the championship to Larson, who admittedly muted his Cup celebration because he felt uneasy about having -- his words -- stolen the title. The controversy over it all had a huge influence in NASCAR's decision to scrap its elimination-style "Playoff" championship format that set up a four-car, highest-finisher-takes-the-title season finale and return to its previous model of a ten-race postseason won whenever it was won by whomever scored the most points over that span.On the phone exactly one year ago with ESPN, Larson was downright distraught, saying, "When I finally get to see him later tonight, I just don't even know what to say. Like, I'm saying, 'Sorry.'"Now, one year later, there was no such guilt in Larson's voice. Only happiness, with a little bit of relief mixed in, not to mention a little bit of pride in having won back-to-back Cups under two different championship points systems. Another accomplishment that puts him in legendary company. Johnson and Petty both won multiple titles via varied systems of determination."Winning it back-to-back years with two different formats is rewarding," Larson explained. "Especially coming off a year where you could argue that our championship last season wasn't legit, even though we would have won that championship had it been this format too. But to come back this year, and we have a lot of different people on our team than we had last year, and still come away with a championship is satisfying and rewarding. It's just nice not having to talk about other things, just about being the champs."Now, there is no reason to not believe Gordon when it comes to more Cups for the No. 5 Chevy in the near future. Larson is only 34, the third-youngest driver to reach three Cup titles. The only ones younger were Gordon and Johnson, who went on to win another five titles between them, both driving for the same team Larson wheels for now. And neither one of them had dealt with everything that Larson has at his age."I just I just feel like our team has seen so many different things, whether they be good moments, tough moments, whatever it may be that we learn from it all, and then we're just more prepared for the next moment that we run into," Larson said. "Our team is capable of capitalizing on big moments and pressure-packed moments, and you know we prove it time and time again."We've seen some stuff. I've seen some stuff. I'm in mid-30s now, so I guess I'm old. But I feel like I'm just getting started."
