“Broke” Kyle Larson’s Historic Feat Captured NASCAR Royalty Including Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon’s Attention at Just 19 Years of Age

Today, Kyle Larson is pretty unanimously regarded as one of the all-time most talented drivers to have ever raced in NASCAR. But the Hendrick Motorsports driver is more than just a stock car racing driver.

One could even make a good argument about his NASCAR career being secondary to his primary form of racing, dirt racing, considering they outnumber the stock car schedule for him every year.

In fact, his NASCAR career could very well be considered an offspring of his dirt career.

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Kyle Larson had NASCAR royalty’s attention with his historical sweep

In an interview from 2020, when he still wasn’t a Cup champion or racing with the top dogs upfront week in and week out, Larson opened up on the moment that accelerated his racing career onto the main stage.

The moment in his career he refers to was in 2011 when he had just made history by completing the 4-crown nationals at Eldora Speedway, something that earned him a handsome $10,000 bonus from Tony Stewart, a sum that meant a lot to him back then.

“I’m 18 or 19 years old then, and broke, just trying to make a living racing racecars, so $10,000 is a long way for me,” he said.

The 2021 Cup champion then revealed how the day after he won at Eldora, he, his family, and some associates went to a local pizza place in Columbus where a small TV began playing a show with an entire segment dedicated to him sweeping the 4-crown.

“That was probably one of the first times I’d ever made it to the national television, I thought that was really cool,” Larson described. “Really, from that moment forward, my career kinda exploded.”

“That weekend too, I think the Cup guys were in New Hampshire and I remember them interviewing Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne all about what I had done the night before,” the current #5 driver continued.

“So just my name kinda exploded in one night, took off from there, and signed with Chip Ganassi a month or two months later.”

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