“I caught some luck”: Kyle Larson makes his feelings known after a narrow Chili Bowl title save

Kyle Larson won his third Golden Driller at this year’s annual Chili Bowl Nationals. But it didn’t come easy as he overcame not one but two incidents during the finale and later felt like he had just gotten lucky.

Driving the No. 1K entry for Silva Motorsports, Larson knew his team had given him everything he needed to bag the win. He started from the pole and felt like he was in complete control through the opening laps. But in dirt racing tables can turn at any moment.

With 17 laps to go, fellow racers Jacob Denney and Brenham Crouch made hard contact in front of the NASCAR Cup Series regular, thus stalling his Silva Motorsports vehicle. Luckily, Larson was able to remedy the situation by driving right over Crouch’s wheels.

“I just kind of ramped over the left-front of his race car,” Larson recalled (via NASCAR). “I just kind of jumped him really. It stalled in mid-air. When it was getting ready to land, I was like, ‘Please, please, please re-fire’”.

Larson’s car re-fired, helping him hold off a fast-charging Daison Pursley, a 19-year-old dirt racer from Locust Grove, Oklahoma. But with four laps to go, things started going south again for the Hendrick Motorsports ace.

His No. 1K veered to the edge of the track and rode along the outside wall for a bit before landing back on the track with its nose pointed towards the infield. Speaking of the save during a post-race media conference, Larson said (as per Matt Weaver, The Sportsnaut):

“Obviously, I caught some luck but maybe I ramped the wall.”

“I’ve been told I’ve been lucky my whole career but you don’t win as often I do with luck all the time,” he continued. “You have to put yourself in position to take advantage of luck.”

Meanwhile, Larson’s first NASCAR-sanctioned race of the 2025 season is now less than a month away. Scheduled for February 2, the season-opening event will begin at 8 pm ET. Fans can catch the action live on FOX or listen to radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Kyle Larson reflects on his third Chili Bowl victory

Kyle Larson has run the Chili Bowl 16 times and won twice in 2020 and 2021. However, as a three-time winner now, the Elk Grove native shared that each of his triumphs was different.

“The first one was just a big hurdle to get over mentally I feel like to get a win in here finally,” said Larson (as quoted by Newsweek). “Then the next year meant a lot because we didn't have the best car that race but we played defense really well.”

"Tonight, the track was challenging to make a lap by yourself, so when you can win a 40-lap race on a track that challenging, it's pretty cool,” he added.

Notably, Jeff Gordon, a four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and the current vice-chairman of Hendrick Motorsports served as the Grand Marshal for the race. Larson’s teammate at Hendrick’s, Alex Bowman, was also involved in the race as the owner of four entries.