CONCORD, N.C. - As he's stated several times in interviews, Kyle Larson doesn't much think about things like legacy, at least not while he's still very much in the process of building it.
And that's OK. We can do it for him!
Certainly, a second NASCAR Cup Series championship earned at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday moved the 33-year-old into loftier territory. Since the first title was awarded to Red Byron in 1949, 36 drivers have won a Cup Series crown but Larson became just the 18th to do it more than once. He's also just one of three active drivers with more than one Bill France Cup joining Joey Logano (three) and Kyle Busch (two).
Already, his place among his peers has been cemented.
NASCAR drivers with more than one Cup Series championship
* denotes title won with Hendrick Motorsports
| Driver | Championships | Years won |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Petty | 7 | 1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979 |
| Dale Earnhardt | 7 | 1980, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 7 | 2006*, 2007*, 2008*, 2009*, 2010*, 2013*, 2016* |
| Jeff Gordon | 4 | 1995*, 1997*, 1998*, 2001* |
| Lee Petty | 3 | 1954, 1958, 1959 |
| David Pearson | 3 | 1966, 1968, 1969 |
| Cale Yarborough | 3 | 1976, 1977, 1978 |
| Darrell Waltrip | 3 | 1981, 1982, 1985 |
| Tony Stewart | 3 | 2002, 2005, 2011 |
| Joey Logano | 3 | 2018, 2022, 2024 |
| Herb Thomas | 2 | 1951, 1953 |
| Tim Flock | 2 | 1952, 1955 |
| Buck Baker | 2 | 1956, 1957 |
| Joe Weatherly | 2 | 1962, 1963 |
| Ned Jarrett | 2 | 1961, 1965 |
| Terry Labonte | 2 | 1984, 1996* |
| Kyle Busch | 2 | 2015, 2019 |
| Kyle Larson | 2 | 2021*, 2025* |
"He's a fantastic racer," Logano said of Larson after Sunday's race. "Obviously they have a great team. Hendrick Motorsports is stout, and Larson is a great driver, Cliff (Daniels) is a great crew chief, and they show up when it matters. They do that really well. They were down and out today and figured out a way to win the championship."
While minimizing historic context as much as he could, Larson has acknowledged on several occasions that joining idols Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon as a multi-time champion carried weight even in the moment. With Gordon returning to the organization in 2022 and serving as vice chairman since, his relationship with Larson has blossomed.
In the aftermath of Larson's historic win on Sunday, Gordon spoke about using himself as motivation to continue to push his fellow Californian.
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"I always knew if you can put him behind the wheel of a Hendrick Motorsports car, he'd do special things," Gordon said in a postrace press conference. "I also believe that records and championships, they're made to be broken. As long as he's on our team, I want him to win 10.
"You motivate people in different ways. He motivates himself in measuring and looking at what's the next goal, the trophy, the championship. I use it for him too. 'Buddy, you got three to go. You're only at one. You've got to get to two before you can get to three, before you get to four.'
"We have a standing joke about, 'C'mon, come and get it.'"
Gordon's meteoric rise and sustained excellence in the sport left behind a wake of numbers and statistics that will be hard for any driver to ever approach again, primarily his 93 victories, third all-time and all coming at Hendrick Motorsports. In terms of career statistics, Gordon is also near the top with 81 poles (third), 325 top fives (third), 477 top 10s (second) and laps led 24,936 (sixth).
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Then there's Jimmie Johnson, himself another measure of greatness within the company. Johnson's seven championships are still tied for the all-time lead with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt and his 83 victories are the sixth-most ever. And within the walls of Hendrick Motorsports, there are some massive numbers for Larson to shoot for but in comparing the three, the stats may not be as lopsided as one would think.
Obviously, both Gordon and Johnson drove Rick Hendrick-owned Chevrolets from the start of their respective careers. Larson, however, spent eight years with Chip Ganassi Racing before landing at Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. Since, he's seen spikes in his performance, accumulating 26 of his 32 career wins, 14 of 22 poles, 78 of 134 top-five finishes, 103 of 204 top 10s, leading 7,149 of 10,362 laps and winning both of his championships over the past five seasons.
While Gordon and Johnson likely had an equipment advantage from the start, Larson also entered his Hendrick Motorsports tenure with six full-time seasons under his belt, so it's not completely apples-to-apples. But here's how the stats shake out when comparing Gordon, Johnson and Larson over the first five years of their respective careers at Hendrick Motorsports:
Larson, Gordon, Johnson, in first five seasons at Hendrick Motorsports
| Stat | Larson | Gordon | Johnson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starts: | 179 | 155 | 180 |
| Wins: | 26 | 29 | 23 |
| Poles: | 14 | 16 | 9 |
| Runner ups: | 18 | 13 | 16 |
| Top fives: | 78 | 74 | 66 |
| Top 10s: | 103 | 95 | 110 |
| Laps led: | 7,149 | 7,247 | 4,195 |
| Championships: | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Sure, Gordon made 24 fewer starts than Larson and 25 fewer than Johnson with shorter Cup Series schedules at the time. Johnson was also just starting to peak in his fifth season and would go on to win the next four championships in years six-through-nine.
But those numbers start to hint at the trajectory Larson could be on. And already, he's entered some lofty territory even with his early years included.
For starters, Larson won't turn 34 until July 31, 2026 with 22 regular season races in next year's schedule between now and then. So, there's plenty of time to continue to add to the following numbers, but right now, Larson has compiled one of the best resumes of any driver in history before the age of 34. Here are his ranks on that list:
- Wins: Tied for 10th
- Top fives: Seventh
- Top 10s: Sixth
- Stage wins: First
- Laps led: Sixth
- Championships: Third
Also, this season, Larson became just the 21st driver to reach the 10,000-career-laps-led threshold. Before the season was finished, he passed Kurt Busch for 20th all time. Kyle Busch (19,466) and Denny Hamlin (16,099) are the only two other active drivers to have eclipsed this benchmark.
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Drivers with 10,000 career laps led in the NASCAR Cup Series
* denotes driver who spent time with Hendrick Motorsports
| Driver | Career laps led |
|---|---|
| 1. Richard Petty | 51,343 |
| 2. Cale Yarborough | 31,676 |
| 3. Bobby Allison | 27,344 |
| 4. Dale Earnhardt | 25,713 |
| 5. David Pearson | 25,147 |
| 6. Jeff Gordon* | 24,936 |
| 7. Darrell Waltrip* | 23,134 |
| 8. Rusty Wallace | 19,972 |
| 9. Kyle Busch* (active) | 19,466 |
| 10. Jimmie Johnson* | 18,941 |
| 11. Denny Hamlin (active) | 16,099 |
| 12. Kevin Harvick | 16,058 |
| 13. Bobby Isaac | 13,059 |
| 14. Junior Johnson | 12,999 |
| 15. Mark Martin* | 12,878 |
| 16. Tony Stewart | 12,815 |
| 17. Martin Truex Jr. | 12,747* |
| 18. Matt Kenseth | 11,769 |
| 19. Bill Elliott | 11,414 |
| 20. Kyle Larson* (active) | 10,362 |
| 21. Kurt Busch | 10,292 |
And Larson continues to pace circuits at an unrivaled rate. In 2025, he eclipsed the 1,000-laps-led mark for the third straight season and the fourth time in five years. In his five seasons with the organization, he's led 7,149 laps, which is 2,058 more than anyone else in that time (Hamlin, 5,091).
While Larson continues to top the scoring pylon more often than anyone else, he's also crept into historic territory in several other statistics as well. Currently, one could find him in the top 40 all-time in nearly every metric including:
- Wins: Tied for 29th (Dale Jarrett)
- Poles: Tied for 37th (Earnhardt, Carl Edwards and Ernie Irvan)
- Top fives: Tied for 32nd (Bobby Isaac and Jeff Burton)
- Top 10s: 39th
- Laps led: 20th
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Of course, those rankings are positioned in the vast history of the sport, dating nearly back to the moonshine running days of its birth. As the parameters shrink, the data looks even more impressive. Take for instance numbers only within the modern era (1972-present):
- Wins: Tied for 21st
- Poles: Tied for 26th
- Top fives: Tied for 25th
- Top 10s: 31st
- Laps led: 17th
But even that timeframe stacks Larson's work so far against the entire careers of some of the sport's most legendary wheelmen including Earnhardt, Johnson and Gordon among many others.
So, how about a comparison with an equal sample size across the board? Say just for the last five years coinciding with Larson's time at Hendrick Motorsports? Then, the numbers jump from impressive to overwhelming:
- Wins: 26 (most, 10 more than any other driver)
- Poles: 14 (tied for second)
- Top fives: 78 (most, nine more than any other driver)
- Top 10s: 103 (most)
- Laps led: 7,149 (most, 2,058 more than any other driver)
One could point to Larson's 2021 season as skewing the numbers a bit. Easily the most dominant season of his career to date, Larson won 10 times on his way to his first championship, racking up 20 top fives, 26 top 10s and leading 2,581 laps along the way.
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The start of 2022 ushered in the Next Gen era complete with a new race car intended to create more parity across the sport. And there's certainly plenty of evidence to pull from across the sport over the past four years that point to just that.
All indications from the four-year sample size of the Next Gen car are that the days of big single-season stat totals are most likely gone. But even amid an era with nearly equal race cars, Larson's still found a way to reach the front more often than just about anyone else:
- Next Gen Wins: 16 (most)
- Poles: 12 (third)
- Top fives: 58 (first, eight more than any other driver)
- Top 10s: 77 (second)
- Laps led: 4,568 (most, 979 more than any other driver)
So, now that Larson has climbed another rung up the ladder, the question becomes, where is this going? How far can the Elk Grove, California, native take this?
Obviously, none of us have a crystal ball. Still, it's an interesting thought to entertain.
While Larson remained mostly mum on the future and success during media sessions surrounding this year's championship festivities, he hinted that he'd like to continue to compete in the Cup Series until at least age 40. That would be seven more seasons at the very least and Larson is far from committed to retirement at that point, only noting he'd likely need to reassess.
If NASCAR and auto racing in general has taught us anything, it's usually futile to assume anything. But for argument's sake, let's just say that Larson continues to drive the No. 5 car for seven more years. With a new body coming for the Chevrolet's next season and an uptick in horsepower at tracks under one-and-a-half miles, both things that would seemingly be positive for Larson, there's every reason to believe big seasons are in front of him.
But for the time being, let's project Larson's current Next Gen era averages (2022-2025) over the next seven seasons and see how it shakes out. For this purpose, we will round decimals to their nearest whole number.
Larson has averaged four wins, three poles, 14.5 top fives, 19.25 top 10s and 1,142 laps led per year in the four seasons of the Next Gen era. Multiplied by seven, those numbers become: 28 wins, 21 poles, 102 top fives, 135 top 10s and 7,994 laps led.
When added to his totals, Larson's career numbers in the major categories would look like this:
- Wins: 60
- Poles: 43
- Top fives: 236
- Top 10s: 339
- Laps led: 18,356
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As for how those numbers would rank? Here they are all time projected against the lists as their comprised currently:
- Wins: Tied for 10th (Hamlin, Harvick)
- Poles: 14th
- Top fives: 13th
- Top 10s: Tied for 16th (Kurt Busch)
- Laps led: 11th
Fair to say, Larson would be a top 15 driver by nearly any measure. Then add the potential for a performance boost due to a new car and increased horsepower, a likely playoff format change that could reward a longer span of excellence as opposed to a one-race scenario and a chance for Larson to drive well beyond age 40 and, well, top 15 may be just the baseline of his career potential.
That story remains to be told. But by nearly any measure, Larson's second championship was another important mile marker along the road to greatness he aspires to be on.