Jeff Gordon on Kyle Larson: "He does amazing things"
Jeff Gordon had a Hall of Fame NASCAR career with Hendrick Motorsports, so he knows first-hand the talented drivers the organization can produce.


After a brief stint as a TV analyst with Fox Sports following his racing career, Gordon returned to HMS in an official role in June of this year as vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports.
Gordon played a large role, along with team owner Rick Hendrick, in bringing Kyle Larson on board as one of its fulltime Cup Series drivers this season following his NASCAR suspension in 2020 for using a racial slur over the radio during a public iRacing event.
Larson didn’t disappoint, winning 10 races of 36 races this season, including the season finale Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, which also handed him the series championship in his first year with the No. 5 team.
“Kyle Larson is a great talent. You give him a great race car and great race teams and he does amazing things,” Gordon said. “We’ve seen it before, seen it in other forms of racing. He and this pit crew and this team, they did it all year long. They got to this point.
“What a battle. I just want to say Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR and all these fans that came out here today, this is what a championship weekend is supposed to feel like, and that was a championship battle.
“Great competitors and a great champion here.”
As it turned, Larson’s victory was a total team effort, as Larson grabbed the lead for the final time in the race thanks to a pit stop under the final caution that gained him three positions.
Once the race restarted on Lap 289 of 312, Larson then had to hold off several serious challenges from Martin Truex Jr. to secure his 10th victory of the season and the championship.
“It was a total team effort not just from the whole season but from the whole weekend, how they prepared to go qualify and get that lap to win the pole, get the No. 1 pit stall, and they had great (pit) stops all day long,” Gordon said.
“An unfortunate caution that got them behind and then another one that helped him get another opportunity, and I think I heard it was like the second best (pit) stop of the entire year.
“That’s what championship teams do.”
Related video

Truex: "Second hurts" after losing out to Larson in title fight
Denny Hamlin: "There's nothing else I could have done"

Latest news
Team 18's coin toss chassis allocation
Supercars squad Team 18 used a combination of a coin toss and a ping pong ball lottery to allocate its new chassis to drivers Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom.
BRT not fazed by Ford aero questions
Blanchard Racing Team isn't fazed about the unresolved Ford aero package ahead of its maiden Gen3 Supercars test at Winton tomorrow.
Australian GP releases more race day tickets
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation has announced a final limited release of race day tickets.
Tickford unveils first 2023 livery
Tickford Racing has unveiled its first livery ahead of the 2023 season with the covers coming off Brad Vaughan's Super2 entry.
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
Saddled with uncompetitive Minardi machinery, Tarso Marques didn't manage to score points in his three partial seasons of Formula 1. But now the Brazilian has the chance to show what he can do in NASCAR, and explains the story of his comeback with new Cup Series entrant Team Stange
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
After holding his nerve and hip-checking his teammate on the run to the line, Austin Cindric made a perfect start to life as a full-timer in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning the Daytona 500. Here's how the Penske Ford man emerged first across the line in the first points-scoring race for the much-anticipated Next Generation cars
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup season as an all-new fleet of cars take to the track for the first time. Ahead of this weekend's Daytona 500, our experts explain what you need to know
How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of Next Gen arrival
The NASCAR Cup kicks off with the Daytona 500 this weekend, but a major engine overhaul and a subsequent mountain of work has been required to be ready for the arrival of the Next Gen cars.
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, but his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines...
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.