Kyle Larson Doubles His Cup Series Tally in the Span of One Season

Published 09/21/2021, 5:33 AM EDT

Kyle Larson is in the form of his life in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series. The Asian-American driver has currently notched up 12 career wins in the premier class. It is also interesting to note that half of those wins have come in the 2021 Cup Series season itself. Meanwhile, the rest of his wins have been scattered between the 2016 and 2019 seasons.

The maiden win came at Michigan in 2016, which was his only win that year. Around that time, the then-Chip Ganassi Racing driver won ahead of Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski. In the following year, he notched up four wins during the course of the season. Kyle Larson won at the Auto Club Speedway, two Michigan wins, and at the Richmond Raceway.

Kyle Larson is having quite the year. pic.twitter.com/qEKIYeCQl4
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) September 20, 2021

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At Auto Club, he emerged victorious over Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer. Meanwhile, at the scene of his second Michigan win, he defeated Chase Elliott and Joey Logano. Later on in the year, he won ahead of Martin Truex Jr and Erik Jones, respectively. Finally, at the Richmond Raceway, he beat Joey Logano and Ryan Newman. In 2019, he won at Dover, ahead of Martin Truex Jr and Alex Bowman.

How has Kyle Larson performed in the 2021 Cup Series season?

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Coming to the 2021 season, Larson set the ball rolling at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. On that occasion, he bested Brad Keselowski and home hero Kyle Busch. After going winless in the next 10 races, he went on to rack up a hat-trick of race wins at Charlotte, Sonoma, and New Hampshire. Later on, he won at Watkins Glen and his latest win has come at the Bristol Raceway.

At Charlotte, he led a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2 ahead of Chase Elliott, with Kyle Busch in third place. Larson and Elliott scored another 1-2 finish at Sonoma, this time with Martin Truex Jr in third. However, at New Hampshire, Ross Chastain prevented a third consecutive 1-2, splitting Larson and William Byron.

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At Watkins Glen though, Elliott was back in second place, with Martin Truex Jr leading a Joe Gibbs trio behind them. Finally at Bristol, a peeved Kevin Harvick split Larson and William Byron. All in all, the #5 driver has been going from strength to strength.

“So Cool to Be Able to Race for the Win” – Kyle Larson Thrilled to Win at Bristol Motor Speedway

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.