Fans Left in Disbelief as Kyle Larson Achieves Unbelievable Feat With the Likes of Dale Earnhardt

Last year, Kyle Larson put together a picture-perfect finish. He had edged out Chris Buescher at the start-finish line by 0.001 seconds, the closest in Cup Series history! In 2025, the finish was way smoother, but Larson made his fans’ jaws drop in another arena. Only a select group of elite drivers has reached the highest levels of racing in NASCAR. Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are at the top of that list. Now, a ‘golden boy’ from Hendrick Motorsports is finding a place there.

The AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway was plagued with issues for other drivers. From Goodyear’s flat tires to nagging technical snags throughout the race, otherwise dominant drivers like Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin faltered. In the meantime, Kyle Larson made the most of his limited experience, and fans are more than ecstatic.

Kyle Larson achieves a ‘golden’ feat

Since NASCAR emerged 76 years ago, certain things have been the hallmarks of brilliance. Foremost, of course, is collecting Cup Series championships and trophies. Richard Petty leads in both, owning 7 titles and 200 race trophies. The ‘King’ also tops the number of laps led in NASCAR with a record of 51,514 laps led. However, another NASCAR legend is not far behind.

The Intimidator, and 7-time title-winning icon Dale Earnhardt, led 25,714 laps with his signature aggressive and calculated approach. Kyle Larson may not be aggressive, but he is certainly calculated regarding his dominating strategy. That is why the HMS icon is already snuggling with Petty and Earnhardt. Kyle Larson came, saw, and conquered Kansas Speedway. He led for 221 of 267 laps, sweeping all stages with remarkable ease. But the turning point came near the end of Stage 2, when the 2021 champion became the 22nd driver in Cup Series history with 10,000 laps led.

Before this weekend, Jimmie Johnson led the most laps at Kansas, 197, back in 2011, and Larson even broke that record. And even while two other active drivers fall in the 10,000 laps led category – Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, a fan on Reddit compared Larson with Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, considering both have more experience with a championship-winning team (Team Penske) than Larson. They wrote, “Compared to guys like Logano and keselowski it’s wild he’s passed them already.”

Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski are both championship-winning drivers. Keselowski famously did it in just his third full-time season in 2012, while Logano clinched three in 2018, 2022, and 2024. However, these two started their Cup careers long before Kyle Larson, yet the #5 has managed to beat them to this record. Logano started in 2009 with Joe Gibbs Racing and was nicknamed ‘sliced bread’ as the best thing since. Keselowski started in 2010 with other powerhouse Penske Racing, while Larson only broke onto the scene in 2014 with Chip Ganassi Racing before moving to HMS in 2021. This is testament to Larson’s dominance, and there’s no surprise as to why he’s being mentioned amongst all-time greats.

However, his dominance at Kansas did not come easily. At the end of the second stage, Kyle Larson faced a fierce challenge from his own teammate. After the caution wrought by Josh Berry, Chase Elliott robbed the lead. Soon after, Brad Keselowski also displaced Larson for second place. Although both Elliott and Keselowski melted away due to issues later, Larson spoke of his struggles post-race.

He said, “Chase was really good, so I felt like I just needed to try and be better on my end…I don’t know if the right front was starting to wear a lot or what, but I was starting to lose a lot of grip, and then I was vibrating really bad. I was afraid a right rear or something would let go. But yeah, great car and great execution today from our team.”

Despite Kyle Larson’s misgivings, NASCAR fans are in love with his jaw-dropping achievement.

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Yung Money wins over an ecstatic crowd

Well, signing your name alongside legends is no mean feat. Icons like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are immortal in the memory of NASCAR fans, who constitute the nostalgic foundations of NASCAR. Now, Kyle Larson is nestling among them, and what is more astounding is his limited time in HMS. This is just his 5th year with HMS, while he ran 6 years for Chip Ganassi Racing. So one fan marveled at his 10,000-lap mark: “Kinda crazy since he spent most of his career at Ganassi.” Echoing this sentiment, another fan wrote, “6 years, not counting 4 races in 2020. We’re on year 5 with Hendrick.” Somebody else took a bow at Larson’s classic nickname. They slightly tweaked ‘Yung Money’ to convey their emotions about the recent feat: “Hung Money™”.

However, what amazed some more people was comparing Kyle Larson with active drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. Logano, a three-time Cup Series champion, is not very consistent in terms of dominating races. Even 2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski is in the same fold, as he is currently riding a misery wave.

So one fan wrote, “kes and log both snipe wins, they don’t dominate…larson dominated a lot of races 2014-2020 and won very very few of them. most of those wins funnily went to penske drivers.” Another fan imagined if Rick Hendrick had recruited his ‘golden boy’ sooner. Maybe Larson would have toppled Jeff Gordon’s sparkle already. They wrote, “Entering today he did like 2/3 of those laps from HMS too, in 4-1/3 seasons. Gordon was big on him around 2014. Imagine if Hendrick had gotten their hands on him sooner.”

Clearly, Kyle Larson is reigning supreme in fans’ minds. With his third victory of the 2025 season already in his trophy cabinet, who knows what Larson will do next?