A clip from Kyle Larson’s Prime Video documentary “Kyle Larson vs. The Double” circulated on X recently, with footage from his childhood. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is seen as a wide-eyed kid and a die-hard Jeff Gordon fan.
The documentary premiered last month on May 21 and has provided a behind-the-scenes look at Larson’s Double attempts. But it is this particular clip that has resonated most broadly on social media. Larson is seen in Gordon’s rainbow DuPont race suit, wearing it to go fishing, on the first day of school, and everywhere a young boy from Elk Grove, California could.
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In the footage, Larson described his childhood hero:
“If I had to pick one guy who is my favorite growing up, it was Jeff Gordon… It’s my Jeff Gordon outfit. Pumped. Got it for my birthday. Went fishing with my Jeff Gordon outfit on. First day of school. Jeff Gordon.”
Alongside that, the documentary includes an even earlier clip of a very young Kyle Larson on camera watching TV with his father, declaring:
“I wanna watch the stock cars.”
That instinct proved consequential later in his life. Kyle Larson was born on July 31, 1992, just as Jeff Gordon was beginning to establish himself in NASCAR’s top series. In his childhood, he watched a young driver from Pittsboro, Indiana, also from outside the traditional Southern NASCAR base, arrive in the Cup and immediately dismantle the established order.
Gordon beat Dale Earnhardt Sr. and won three championships in four years from 1995 to 1998. By the time Larson was eight years old, Gordon had claimed his fourth title in 2001. Watching a West Coast talent compete at NASCAR’s highest level, winning on the biggest stages, shaped what Larson believed was possible.
25 years later, Kyle Larson works alongside Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports, where he serves as Vice Chairman. Larson, meanwhile, is a two-time champion in the No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet, shaping his legacy, after Gordon helped make it possible for California drivers a generation earlier.
When Kyle Larson wrote about Jeff Gordon during his 2015 retirement tour
Jeff Gordon announced in January 2015 that it would be his final full-time season in NASCAR. He brought the farewell tour to its conclusion with a storybook win at Martinsville Speedway, finishing fifth in the standings. The sport paid tribute to him throughout the year.
Kyle Larson, 23 years old, was then in his sophomore Cup season, and already drawing comparisons to Gordon. Both of them were from Northern California, both Rookie of the Year recipients, both introduced the sport to audiences outside the South.
Larson wrote a first-person account during that 2015 season honoring Gordon (via Autoweek):
“I guess I was first aware of Jeff when I was younger, before I started racing – 4, 5, 6 years old. I just remember my parents telling me about this kid who grew up in Vallejo, California, who raced at the same sprint-car tracks I had gone to as a spectator when I was a kid.”
Larson described watching Jeff Gordon on VHS tapes his parents had recorded from “Thursday Night Thunder” during family car rides to stock car races on the West Coast. Gordon appeared on a handful of those recordings, planting a seed that grew into full NASCAR fandom. He also recalled the first time he met Gordon:
“I probably met Jeff for the first time when I was too young to hold my head up. My mom probably has a picture somewhere. I think the first time I actually met him when he knew who I was, it was at the end of 2011.”
At the end of 2011, Kyle Larson had broken through in USAC and visited Hendrick Motorsports as part of meeting potential teams. He admitted he was “a little star-struck” because at that point, he had never met anyone really famous. He also added that since joining Cup, Gordon advised him on handling things off the track, which genuinely shaped his approach.
A decade on, their relationship has become a partnership at Hendrick, where both of them have found everything the sport has to offer.
Edited by Anurup Chakraborty
