Driver Hub/Kyle Larson
Wikimedia Commons · Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 2026
Kyle Larson
Elk Grove dirt kid. Two-time Cup champion. Still the one they watch on clay.
Born July 31, 1992 in Sacramento and raised in Elk Grove, California. Kyle Miyata Larson drives the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports — 32 Cup wins, two championships, and a dirt-track résumé that most oval stars never touch.
Also known as Yung Money · The Iceman
- Car
- #5 Chevrolet
- Team
- Hendrick Motorsports
- Born
- July 31, 1992
- Hometown
- Elk Grove, California
- Home base
- North Carolina · California
- Cup titles
- 2021 · 2025
- Cup wins
- 33
- Family
- Katelyn + Owen, Audrey, Cooper
The ride · special
Zac Brown Band
HendrickCars.com · matte black & gold
Zac Brown Band
Larson rolled the No. 5 in the band's stone-skull scheme for the 2025 Las Vegas playoff race — a HendrickCars.com collab for ZBB's Sphere residency. Matte black, gold leaf, skull on the hood.
Editorial illustration · No. 5 HendrickCars.com / Zac Brown Band · Las Vegas 2025
Childhood
Raised in the shop
Kyle Miyata Larson was born July 31, 1992 in Sacramento and grew up in nearby Elk Grove, California — a kid who was around race tracks before he could walk.
Family lore says his parents took him to his first race about a week after he was born. His dad Mike raced, and the shop and the dirt track were the family hangout — not a weekend hobby.
He started racing outlaw karts around age 7 on the Northern California dirt circuit. The cars were small. The fields were not. That is where the nickname “Yung Money” stuck — a teenage dirt grenade who already looked like he belonged with the grown-ups.
By his late teens he had jumped to USAC midgets and sprint cars. In 2011, at 18, he won the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa — the indoor midget Super Bowl. The whole country of dirt racers knew the name before NASCAR did.
Family
The Sweet-Larson crew
Parents: Mike Larson and Janet Larson. Japanese American on his mother’s side. His maternal grandparents were held in a World War II internment camp — a family history Larson has spoken about publicly.
Married Katelyn Sweet on September 26, 2018. Katelyn is the sister of World of Outlaws star and NASCAR racer Brad Sweet. The couple got engaged on December 22, 2017.
- Owen Miyata LarsonBorn December 22, 2014
- Audrey Layne LarsonBorn 2018
- Cooper Donald LarsonBorn December 31, 2022
Hometown & home
Elk Grove on the license. North Carolina in season.
Hometown is Elk Grove — the Sacramento suburb where the karts, the USAC nights, and the first Chili Bowl run all started. Lives primarily in North Carolina during the Cup season with Hendrick Motorsports, and still spends time back in Northern California — including Grass Valley.
Hendrick Motorsports is based in Concord, North Carolina. That is the shop, the simulator, and the weekday grind. California is still the origin story every time he climbs into a sprint car on a week off.
Racing career
From midgets to the No. 5
2011–13
Dirt prodigy, then NASCAR
Chili Bowl winner in 2011. In 2012 he won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship and Rookie of the Year with Rev Racing. A year later he was Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year with Turner Scott Motorsports — four Truck wins in 2013 while still racing dirt every chance he got.
2014–19
Chip Ganassi’s #42
Nationwide / Xfinity Rookie of the Year in 2014. Cup debut that same year. First Cup win: Michigan, 2016. The 2017 season announced him as a star — four Cup wins, an All-Star Race, and the “can win anywhere” reputation. All-Star again in 2019. On ovals he was already the driver other drivers watched in the mirror.
2020–21
Fired, then rebuilt
In April 2020 Larson used a racial slur on a public iRacing livestream. Chip Ganassi Racing fired him. NASCAR suspended him. Sponsors walked. He spent the year on dirt, won another Chili Bowl, and started the long work of earning trust back. Rick Ware Racing put him in the 2021 Daytona 500. Hendrick Motorsports signed him weeks later to the No. 5. He answered with 10 Cup wins and the 2021 championship — Clash, All-Star, Brickyard, and the title in the same year.
2022–25
Two-time champion
The win list kept growing: Super Late Model crown jewels, more All-Star hardware, the 2024 Clash and Southern 500, the 2025 Coca-Cola 600, a second All-Star in 2025, and a second Cup championship that same season. Hendrick’s No. 5 is the ride every kid on a bullring now points at.
2026
First win of the year at Gateway
The first checkered flag of 2026 came at the Enjoy Illinois 300 — World Wide Technology Raceway, double overtime. He added the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas (235 of 267 laps) for win No. 34 of his Cup career, then finished 2nd in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas, 1.376s behind Chase Briscoe. Unofficial Chase lead after Vegas: 2,318, forty ahead of Denny Hamlin. Next: Bank of America 400 at Charlotte, Oct 11.
Dirt-track résumé
The weeknights that made him
Most Cup drivers treat dirt as a hobby. Larson treats it like a second series. Chili Bowl. Kings Royal. Knoxville. If the clay is packed and the purse is real, the No. 5 Cup guy is often already in the car.
Chili Bowl Nationals
2011, 2013, 2020 · indoor midget masterpiece in Tulsa
Kings Royal
2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 · four-time Eldora sprint-car king
Knoxville Nationals
2021, 2025 · the dirt world’s biggest Saturday night
4-Crown Nationals
2011, 2012, 2020
USA Nationals
Cedar Lake dirt late-model / sprint crown jewel
I-55 Dirt Nationals
2025 winner
High Limit Racing
2024 series champion
King of the Wing
2016 pavement sprint-car title
Cup hardware
What the pavement paid
NASCAR Cup champion
2021, 2025
Cup race wins
33, including Brickyard, Southern 500, Coke 600, 2026 Gateway
All-Star Race
2017, 2019, 2021, 2025
Busch Light Clash
2021, 2024
K&N Pro East champ
2012 + Rookie of the Year
Truck + Xfinity ROTY
2013 Trucks · 2014 Xfinity
Cup line after the 2026 South Point 400 at Las Vegas: 422 starts · 34 wins · 126 top 5s · 24 poles · 2026 so far 29 starts, 1 win (Gateway), 10 top 5s, 14 top 10s, unofficial Chase leader (2,206, +1 on Hamlin)
Sources for this desk: public biographical records, NASCAR Cup statistical summaries heading into Loudon, and the live Dollar Tree 301 notes used on the homepage board. Images: Wikimedia Commons portraits and race photos; Pexels stock for California hills and night dirt racing; editorial illustration of the 2025 Zac Brown Band Vegas scheme. Fan site — not affiliated with NASCAR or Hendrick Motorsports.