As he tends to do about once a month or so, Kyle Larson sliced through the NASCAR Cup Series field en route to a statement victory during Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
After running a distant fourth place with 25 laps to go, Larson conserved his tires for the afternoon's longest run and breezed right by Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, and finally leader Alex Bowman, taking over the top spot with seven circuits remaining and never looking back. He made it look easy. He made it look normal.
It's not normal. And it's why Larson, despite owning only 30 career wins (30th all-time) up to this point and one Cup Series championship, should be comfortably in the discussion as one of the greatest drivers NASCAR has ever seen.
Larson's ascension to all-time NASCAR greatness
Larson is a 12-year veteran of the Cup Series, but his legacy truly only began in 2021 when he signed with Hendrick Motorsports.
After spending his first six years held back by an inconsistent Chip Ganassi Racing program, he put together one of the most dominant seasons of NASCAR's modern era, winning 10 races and the title while leading 2,581 laps. The former feat has only been accomplished twice this century, while the latter is the highest count of any driver since 1995.
Larson hasn't quite reached those same heights since then – most notably, he's yet to win another championship. That said, it's hard to hold that against him, given the randomness of NASCAR's playoff format. Furthermore, due to the Next Gen car condensing the field closer together, consistent peak performance has become much harder to come by for anyone.
All things considered, Larson has remained the class of the Cup Series year in and year out, with 14 wins since the start of the Next Gen era and more laps led than any other driver in each of the past two seasons. The main factor when evaluating him, though, is simply the eye test. It's the way he wins many of his races, by visibly being on a different level from everyone else.
He did it last season at Sonoma Raceway, driving to the win from deep in the pack after taking fresh tires late. He did it again at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in a race where passing was next to impossible for most of the field. Perhaps most famously, there was his performance in the 2023 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, when he went from dead last to the lead by halfway and was on cruise control for the rest of the race.
At Homestead, he had no fresh tire advantage – only a driver advantage. He ran all three races at the track over the weekend, including the Truck Series race on Friday and the Xfinity Series race on Saturday in addition to Sunday's main event.
In the Truck Series race, he spun out late and then casually drove right back to the front to take the win with two laps to go. In the Xfinity race, he led by more than 15 seconds until a late caution, and contact from behind on the ensuing restart dropped him to fourth at the checkered flag.
Then on Sunday, Larson once again put on an absolute show. He's the most exciting driver NASCAR has seen in generations, a transcendent raw talent who can simply do things on the track that nobody else can. The number of drivers in the history of the sport who could've won from the position Larson was in at Homestead with 25 laps to go can probably be counted on one hand.
He may not have multiple championships. He may not yet have the win total of NASCAR's other all-time titans. But when it comes to pure skill in wheeling a stock car, there are very, very few who have ever been better than Kyle Larson.