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Fennelly: Is Cup series points leader Kyle Larson NASCAR's next big thing?

 
Kyle Larson climbs into his car during a NASCAR Cup auto racing practice Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. [AP photo]
Kyle Larson climbs into his car during a NASCAR Cup auto racing practice Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. [AP photo]
Published June 30, 2017

DAYTONA BEACH — Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are retirees. And now Dale Earnhardt Jr. is taking his last turn through Daytona International Speedway as a full-time driver.

In a sport where legends are dropping off, NASCAR fans are looking for the next generation of stars.

One nominee: the Cup series current points leader.

His name is Kyle Larson and he doesn't turn 25 until late this month. He won a race and made the playoffs last season, but has truly broken through in his fourth season, with two wins, seven top-5 finishes and 10 top 10s in 16 starts, good for a 13-point lead over Martin Truex Jr. heading into Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

"It's definitely been a good year," Larson said. "A lot better than what I anticipated going into this season. I knew we'd be good, but I didn't know we'd have one of the best cars every week."

Is Larson the next big thing?

He's too busy driving to figure out all that. Probably running on some dirt track, charging hard. The Californian (hometown: Elk Grove, near Sacramento) is everywhere at once.

Take a recent eight-day stretch. On a Tuesday, Larson was on the dirt in Nebraska, winning a sprint-car race. On Sunday, he won the NASCAR Cup race in Michigan. On Monday and Tuesday, he won two more dirt-track races at two different Ohio tracks.

"Definitely a cool week for me," Larson said by phone. "But I love, for sure, racing anything, especially sprint cars. They're a blast to drive.

"I feel a little bit like an old-school guy. … The drivers in the 70s or earlier than that were racing so many days during the week, they'd race over a hundred days a year. These days, a lot of the Cup guys are strictly Cup guys. They have fun going to the beaches and the Bahamas. I enjoy going to the dirt track and relaxing there."

Old school. And new school, too.

Larson, who is Japanese American, is the first member of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program to reach the Cup series full time. He's a point of light for a lot of young drivers.

That includes 20-year-old Chase Cabre, who grew up in Thonotosassa and graduated from Armwood High. Chase, like his older brother, Collin, has been racing most of his life and is part of the Drive for Diversity program (his father is of Spanish heritage) and the NASCAR Next program, which helps market and find funding for talented young drivers.

Chase Cabre, who competes in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, knows and likes Larson and hopes to one day follow him into Cup racing.

"Someone who I can relate close to is Kyle," Cabre said. "He made it to the Cup Series. He came from the exact same thing. No money. He was just a heck of a wheel man. He went through the diversity program, like I'm doing. Went through the Nextel Next program, like I'm doing. And hopefully one day I can have a career like he's having."

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Larson has won three Cup races, and might have won a fourth in the season finale at Homestead last November, but was overtaken by now seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson after a late restart. Four days later, Larson won the Turkey Night Grand Prix, a big-time USAC National Midget Series dirt-track event back home in California.

Old school.

True. Larson was seen sipping from a wine bottle after a win.

Hey, the guy is from Northern California, grapes and all.

"We did some wine tasting yesterday, actually," Larson said. "Those old guys were probably whiskey or something."

He thinks people worried about his sport's future need to chill.

"A lot of people are nervous about Junior leaving. I think it's going to be the opposite. Maybe short term it's going to look a little scary that Junior is retired, but look at all the fans he has. We might lose a small percentage who might not ever want to watch NASCAR again, but the rest of them are going to pick new drivers to cheer for."

Why should fans cheer for Kyle Larson?

"Once you get to know me, I have a good personality," Larson said. "But my sales pitch is I'm a racer. I don't settle for one series. Look at this past week for me. I raced four times in eight days. A lot of people don't do that. Some of them don't have a chance to do that, but some do, and they choose not to race. I choose to race. It's everything to me. I want to be known as one of the greatest race car drivers of all time. I don't just want to be known as the greatest NASCAR driver. I want to be the greatest all-around driver."

Contact Martin Fennelly at mfennelly@tampabay.com or (813) 731-8029. Follow @mjfennelly