“He just eats, sleeps, and drinks racing. He wants to win every race.” The astonishment in Rick Hendrick’s words is something rare indeed. Hendrick is a top-tier NASCAR Cup Series team owner who owns 316 race wins and 14 championships, gathered over 4 decades. Hence, he is not easily impressed. Yet Kyle Larson has done that since the first day he joined HMS.

The No. 5 Chevrolet driver embodies the word ‘versatility.’ Until today and beyond, Kyle Larson continues to race in all forms of cars having all sorts of features. That is what fuels his drive to keep winning as well. And Hendrick understood that from the very start.

Why Kyle Larson’s passion was not stopped

At the end of the day, a prodigy thrives in what they love most. Around a decade ago, Rick Hendrick had strict restrictions for his Cup Series drivers’ extra-curricular interests. Kasey Kahne joined HMS back in 2012 at the cost of his Sprint Car and Midget sidequests. Kyle Larson also had to limit his dirt racing duties while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. However, Larson got lucky at the start of the 2021 season. When he was leaving Chip Ganassi and heading into HMS, 4-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon was assuming a vice chairman’s role. Incidentally, Gordon had a common talent with Larson. Gordon said in 2021: “I saw him at dirt tracks, and we had that background.”

Jeff Gordon wanted to let drivers do their maximum to tackle the new Next-Gen car. And that fell in place with Larson’s dirt racing ambitions. In a recent episode of ‘Never Settle’, Larson let out his initial apprehension: “Before I got hired, I went to Rick’s house and into his basement. A conversation about racing and what I’d been up to. It got to the point in the end when he was like, ‘Yeah, we wanna hire you. We want you to be part of our team…Is there anything that you want?’ …I thought I knew that Rick and Jeff and Hendrick Motorsports would be like totally against dirt racing. I was good friends with Kasey, and I could see that they wouldn’t allow him to run, and when they did, Hendrick didn’t seem like he would love it. And I was nervous.”

Eventually, Kyle Larson was surprised to see them nodding in approval. He continued, “I was like, ‘I’m just gonna throw it out there, I’d really like to race sprint cars still.’ I was waiting for them to be like, ‘Yeah, no.’ But they were like, ‘Yeah, no problem! We’ll let you do that.’ Jeff Gordon was like, ‘You know, we’re changing our culture at Hendrick Motorsports, we’re really trying to be different.’ I was like, ‘Wow, Awesome’…Man, they’ve been great. They’ve never said no to one dirt racing request I’ve had. It could be the night before a Cup race, and I had to fly three hours. They know I’m gonna get home at 4 in the morning, they’re cool with it…I’m sure they prefer I don’t do it sometimes, but it’s been great.”

Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick’s approval ultimately led to great results. Kyle Larson continues to hone his race craft on multiple tracks, even with ups and downs.

Riding out every storm 

In the quest to be great at something, things are not always hunky-dory. In his build-up to the second Double attempt in 2025, Kyle Larson went through many mishaps. He wrecked his car in two Indy 500 practices. Then, Larson saw another car go airborne in front of him and hit his own car at a Lakeside Speedway sprint car race. Yet Larson shrugged off these crashes and led 221 of 267 laps to win the Cup Series race at Kansas. Similarly, Larson’s Double attempt did not go well, as he faced twin wrecks in both IndyCar and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. Despite that defeat, Larson recently confessed his interest in appearing in a 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

This immunity to ups and downs reflects Kyle Larson’s resilient attitude. Chad Knaus, HMS VP of Competition, reflected on this unique talent: “Nothing really gets under his skin…doesn’t get wound up. He doesn’t get emotional about maybe something that happens on the racetrack.” Knaus also echoed what Hendrick and Gordon agreed in their first meeting with Larson. He said, “He loves driving race cars and he loves competing, and that’s something that’s pretty special. And when you have a young man that talented that wants to drive all the time, you need to let him do that.”

That is why we keep seeing Kyle Larson at so many dirt races alongside his Cup Series schedule. Let us see what Hendrick’s ‘golden boy’ is cooking next.