Kyle Larson is positioned to make history at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday as he seeks to clinch his third NASCAR Cup Series championship in six years. The 34-year-old driver requires just nine points in the season finale to secure the Bill France Cup. He will earn one point merely for starting the 400-mile race, meaning he could officially claim the title long before the checkered flag falls.
Larson’s path to the title has been marked by a historic postseason run. Throughout the nine playoff events, he secured victories in three races and finished in the top ten in eight of them. This consistent performance has left his remaining rivals, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, as statistical underdogs for the championship.
If Larson succeeds, he will become the first driver to win back-to-back Cup Series titles since Jimmie Johnson in 2010. Johnson holds the record for consecutive championships, having won five in a row beginning in 2006. A third title would also place Larson in exclusive company, making him the 11th driver in NASCAR history to achieve this milestone.
The list of three-time champions includes legends such as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmie Johnson, who have seven titles each. Jeff Gordon holds four, while Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Tony Stewart, and Joey Logano also have three championships to their names.
Larson’s previous titles have come with distinct narratives. His first championship in 2021 was his inaugural season with Hendrick Motorsports, where he won four of the final five races, including the Phoenix finale, despite questions surrounding his departure from Chip Ganassi Racing. His second title last year at Phoenix was particularly dramatic. With two laps remaining, Larson’s crew changed two tires during a late caution, allowing him to leap Denny Hamlin on pit road to take the lead and hold on for the win.
The current race to the title appears less volatile than past finishes. Larson was the only Cup driver invited to NASCAR’s championship media day on Thursday, an event he described as somewhat awkward due to the certainty of his victory. The primary concern became how the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team would manage the pressure of a near-guaranteed win.
Larson addressed the media attention during qualifying on Saturday, noting that the team remained calm. He joked that they were debating whether a hot dog is a sandwich and if cereal is a soup, concluding that he was surprised by the relaxed atmosphere. He firmly stated that a hot dog is not a sandwich and that cereal is absolutely not a soup.
Beyond the immediate title, a third championship invites debate about Larson’s standing in motorsports history. Drivers like Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, and Tony Stewart are often cited as the greatest because they proved their dominance across different racing series. Jones won in sprint and stock cars around the time of his 1963 Indianapolis 500 victory. Andretti captured four IndyCar titles, the 1967 Daytona 500, and the 1969 Indianapolis 500. Foyt won four Indianapolis 500 races and the 1972 Daytona 500, while Stewart won the 1997 IndyCar championship, three Cup titles, and currently races top-level NHRA dragsters.
Larson has competed in the Indianapolis 500 twice and has won nearly every major dirt-racing event worldwide. Jeff Burton, a retired NASCAR driver and current NBC Sports analyst, believes Larson’s versatility solidifies his status. Burton stated that Larson is the best race car driver in the world because he wins in everything he does, competing against the best in completely different cars and tracks across all disciplines.
