NASCAR: The other team Kyle Larson could’ve driven for
By Asher Fair
Hendrick Motorsports weren’t the only team interested in signing Kyle Larson for his return to the NASCAR Cup Series in the 2021 season.
When Kyle Larson was suspended by NASCAR and fired by Chip Ganassi Racing two years ago today after multiple sponsors cut ties with him over his use of a racial slur during a virtual iRacing event, there were never any guarantees that he would return to the Cup Series.
Larson went above and beyond everything he needed to do to earn the right to be reinstated by NASCAR, but there was still never any guarantee that a team would be willing to take a chance on him and associate with him, given what had happened.
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Hendrick Motorsports took that chance, and it paid off in a big way. In his first year with the team, Larson recorded the first 10-win season for any driver since Jimmie Johnson won 10 races for the team in 2007, and he also won his first championship.
But they weren’t the only team interested in signing Larson for the 2021 season.
It was widely known that Tony Stewart had tried to sign Larson on multiple occasions before, most notably as his own replacement after the 2016 season, but he was unable to do so due to Larson’s contract status with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Not surprisingly, Larson was linked to Stewart-Haas Racing pretty early on in his suspension, and many believed that he would indeed get a chance to drive the #14 car, with Clint Bowyer in a contract season in 2020.
Rookie Chase Briscoe, who drove for the team’s Xfinity Series program, was named Bowyer’s replacement instead.
Larson went on to sign with Hendrick Motorsports as Johnson’s replacement, albeit in the #5 Chevrolet as opposed to the #48 Chevrolet.
A fan made the following (unedited) comment on a post by Stewart dedicated to Bowyer at the end of the 2020 season: “Shudda put larson in 14 car !! Lost out s&h racing.. Someone with no fear !! Who you got better ?? No one !! Dumbest..”
Stewart responded: “trust me I tried. Learn all of the details before you bash me. I tried for the last 4 years. Ford wouldn’t approve it. I TRIED”
During the 2021 season, as Larson was charging toward his first career championship, Stewart admitted that not signing him will forever be one of the biggest regrets of his racing career.
Had Ford approved it, would Larson have taken a different path?
Given Stewart-Haas Racing’s 2021 struggles, it’s probably safe to say that this other possible — or in this case, impossible — path wouldn’t have resulted in a 10-win championship season in his first year back.
Interestingly, Rick Hendrick had been eyeing Larson as Johnson’s replacement even before he was fired by Chip Ganassi Racing during the 2020 season.
Larson was due to become a free agent after the 2020 season anyway, and with Johnson having announced that the 2020 season would be his last almost immediately after the 2019 season ended, this gave the team quite some time to figure out who they wanted to replace him.
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It didn’t take Hendrick long to figure that out, and while things certainly took an interesting turn for Larson from that point forward, it all worked out the way it was supposed to.