NEW YORK — Kyle Larson has spent the last four days celebrating his second NASCAR Cup Series title.
From the moments afterward with his three kids getting a ride in his race car to the champion’s stage to the awards ceremony Tuesday, to the Knicks game Wednesday in New York and various photo shoots Thursday — he has tried to embrace the ride.
Kyle Larson visits the Empire State Building to celebrate the his Cup Series Championship.
Larson spoke with me following a photo shoot at the Empire State Building. He talked about his children, Owen (who turns 11 in December); Audrey (7); and Cooper (who turns 3 in December), enjoying the celebrations and how he plans to handle an upcoming weekend in Cabo.
I assume you’ve seen the video of Owen kissing Cooper while holding onto him in the race car on the ride to the stage? Where does he get that from?
He’s a good big brother to Cooper. To Audrey? Not so much [laughs]. But, no, he’s got a really big heart. He’s honestly a lot like me. I think we both get emotional, and we like to see people do good things and all that. All the celebration was really neat with the family there the other day.
Did you think you’d be able to get all three of them in there?
Yeah, I thought so, but I didn’t know about Cooper. He’s never been in it before, so I didn’t want to scare him or anything like firing the engine up. But he handled it good. So that was cool.
I assume your wife, Katelyn, was good with all three of them in there?
I think it was her idea. So, yeah, I was a bit surprised by that because she kind of babies Cooper a little bit. But, no, it was special. Those moments are always the ones that you cherish. And especially, having it on camera makes it all better.
It was a family affair for the Larsons in Phoenix.
Have they talked about it at all? Have you seen them at all?
We all got up early yesterday [Wednesday] to head out, and I woke Owen up in the morning, and first thing he says, ‘Dad, I still can’t believe you won the championship.’ So I thought that was really cute that it was on his mind still because I still really can’t believe it either.
When you celebrated, you didn’t put goggles on for the champagne spray. Did they not have them? Or did you decide we’re not gonna put them on?
We didn’t have any. We didn’t have any goggles the first time I had won the championship, either. So maybe if I’m ever in the running for a championship, we should be better prepared. Hopefully, next time.
So you would wear them?
I would absolutely wear the goggles. Because, yeah, I love the champagne sprays, but I don’t like — no matter how much you close your eyes, it still finds its way in and burns.
It’s still worth the championship?
Absolutely. I’ll take the eyes burning. My eyes, I’m sure, they’ve been bloodshot since then. Haven’t changed.
…Not from champagne …
Yeah, probably lack of sleep.
Kyle Larson’s sons, Cooper and Owen, and daughter Audrey pose for a photo with their dad’s two championship trophies.
In one of your interviews, I heard you say Audrey is into hockey?
Yeah, she started playing ice hockey. She’s so young, so it’s more like learning of the game right now. So they’ll do practices on Mondays, and then they have scrimmages on Wednesdays. But there’s actually a lot of girls in it, too. It’s really cool. She’s really competitive and likes to do everything, try everything, so it’s pretty neat. And she enjoys going out there and roughing some kids up and all that.
Do you have any hockey players in your family or anything?
No hockey in my background. So she watched “The Mighty Ducks” a couple years ago. And so then we got her roller blades and all that. She’s really good at skating, I feel like, for her age and size. And then, [racing sheet metal supplier] Greg Fornelli, his son is in it, and he was telling us about it at the end of last year. We had just missed it, so we’re like, ‘Oh, next year we’ve got to do it.’ She likes it. It’s a lot of work, a lot of lot of pads and layers of everything that’s hard to keep up with.
That’s not something you can give any advice on, is it?
No, I don’t know what’s going on. When I go to watch practice or whatever — you can’t hear what the coaches are saying, I have no clue what to even talk to her about when she gets in the car. But it’s fun. It’s just fun to see her doing things and not being afraid of learning something new.
Is there any sport that you wish your kids would be playing?
Well, obviously, any stick-and-ball sport would be cheaper than racing. But I don’t know. Golf would be great. Owen’s actually got a really good golf swing, nice and smooth. We’ve just got to find the time to get him out there more often — he would. I think, be a really good golfer on the casual side of golfing.
Have you gotten to play much golf?
I don’t play much golf anymore. I just don’t have the time for it. And when I do have the time for it, I don’t want to take the time for it. So I’ve only probably played seven or eight rounds this year.
You went to the Knicks game last night?
It was really cool. I’ve never been to Madison Square Garden. It’s definitely the nicest arena I’ve been to. And just the VIP treatment … the red carpet services is amazing. The game was good. And it’s just pretty neat being in a building with a lot of celebrities around is pretty cool.
Kyle Larson cheers on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden during his post-championship visit to NYC.
And you’re off to Cabo for a couple of days?
Yeah, I’ll go there in the morning.
If your crew chief Cliff Daniels texts you, will you text him back?
Yeah. I’m not like that. It’s nice to check out, but it’s hard to always check out, I don’t know what he would want for me right now, but I’m always available.
Will you watch a race on Flo that you’re interested in while on vacation?
Well, [World of Outlaws] World Finals is going on, so, yeah, I’ll probably watch that. Right now, I’ll check out from racing for one week, and then I’ll get back in the car
Before you get back in a car, you go to your hometown of Elk Grove [California] for a parade next week. I know it’s been a long time since you’ve lived there but anywhere you want to see or go to?
I haven’t really looked at my day yet to see how much time I’d have. I haven’t gone back to Elk Grove in a few years. But my normal spots. Happy Garden, my favorite Chinese food restaurant there. Whenever I go to Sacramento, where [my sprint-car owner] Paul Silva’s shop is, I go to a Mexican restaurant right on the corner from his shop. So might hit that too.
Kyle Larsons hows off some bling on the red carpet at the 2025 NASCAR Awards Show this week.
What has made this championship celebration different than the other ones and then your last one?
It’s been different because a lot of our team is different. At the banquet, we took a picture of the [car No.] 5 [team] guys that were here on our [championship] team in 2021 and it was like seven of us, maybe. It’s quite a bit different now. And then just celebrating everybody who it’s now their first championships has been really cool. The week has looked a lot different, too, with the banquet being on Tuesday [after the final race instead of a few weeks later], which I liked. But as a champion, man, I am so tired right now because it’s just a lot of days consecutive now to doing things. But it’s cool because you’re still kind of riding the high from the race. It’s been fun. It’s always great to celebrate and get to do these cool things like we are today in New York. And this is kind of the final day I feel like of celebrating the championship, and then you’re quickly moving on to next year. So just try to cherish it.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
