Kyle Larson could join rare NASCAR history with championship win
The NASCAR Cup Series has never featured a winless champion, but across its 78-year history, multiple drivers have won the championship without formally winning a pole position.
If Kyle Larson wins the championship Sunday, he will join the list of drivers who won the title without winning a pole during their championship run.
The feat has happened nine prior times: Bill Rexford (1950), Benny Parsons (1973), Dale Earnhardt (1980), Bobby Allison (1983), Dale Earnhardt (1991), Dale Jarrett (1999), Matt Kenseth (2003), Brad Keselowski (2012), and Ryan Blaney (2023).
On paper, Larson did start two races first this year (Bristol and Charlotte in the Chase because of inclement weather). However, NASCAR does not award the pole when the lineup is set by the metric.
Larson will start the championship race 4th. Larson’s two competitors mathematically eligible for the championship; Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell; will start 2nd and 6th respectively.
“Overall, yeah, happy to end up there in fourth, so… Yeah, we’ll just go race now,” Larson said to the media post-qualifying Saturday.
Larson needs to finish 28th or better with no stage points earned to claim his third championship and second consecutive.
Larson has earned 3 wins, 15 Top-5 finishes, 21 Top-10 finishes, and led 1,238 laps across the first 35 races.
A championship for Larson would tie him with six other drivers for three titles on the NASCAR Cup Series’ all-time championship winners list.
The list of three-time champions includes current competitor Joey Logano. The other five drivers are NASCAR Hall-of-Fame members.
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday on NBC.
SOURCES
NASCAR, Racing-Reference.info
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.