HOMESTEAD, Fla. — With the NASCAR Cup Series championship flag flying from a car window, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson’s youngest child stood atop the No. 5 Chevrolet and signaled to everyone what had been known for hours.
Cooper, his 3-year-old son, held up a single finger.
Yep, his dad was No. 1 again.
Larson clinched his third Cup Series title in six years early in Sunday’s 400-mile season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He became the first back-to-back champion at stock-car racing’s highest level since Jimmie Johnson in 2010; Johnson — a NASCAR Hall of Famer whose seven career Cup Series titles matched the record set by Richard Petty and first tied by Dale Earnhardt — won five in a row beginning in 2006. Both of them accomplished the feat with the powerhouse organization owned by Rick Hendrick.
The 34-year-old Larson also became the 11th driver in NASCAR history with three Cup Series titles, joining Earnhardt, Johnson and Petty, four-time winner Jeff Gordon, and Joey Logano, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Tony Stewart, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough. Logano, who drives for Team Penske, is the only other active driver with three titles.