‘Elk Grove is my home:’ NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson gets victor’s welcome
A packed Elk Grove Old Town Plaza roared its welcome Monday afternoon, city leaders predicted a three-peat and a beaming Kyle Larson returned to his hometown a NASCAR champion on Kyle Larson Day in Sacramento County.
“This is pretty overwhelming, thanks to each and every one of you,” Kyle Larson, Elk Grove native, Pleasant Grove High School alum and, now, newly minted NASCAR Cup Series champion told the crowd of race fans standing shoulder-to-shoulder to see their hometown hero.
“Elk Grove is my home, my parents still live here, Happy Garden is still my favorite restaurant,” Larson said to more cheers from the standing-room crowd.
Larson paraded through the streets of Old Town Elk Grove on Monday afternoon, seated with his wife atop a bright yellow Chevrolet Corvette and greeted by fans, well-wishers and local dignitaries.
“It was so exciting watching Kyle this year,” Chuck Baker said while viewing the parade along Elk Grove Boulevard. “He put us on the map.”
Elk Grove has produced a long line of notable athletes from the NBA’s Bill Cartwright and baseball’s Fernando Vina to the San Francisco 49ers’ Arik Armstead, said longtime City Councilman Pat Hume, but “there’s only one NASCAR champion and he’s standing on the stage right now.”
“Thank you, Larson!” Larson fan Zack Butler shouted. Butler took the afternoon off to see his favorite racer. He’d followed Larson since his days on local dirt tracks.
Seeing him, cup trophy in hand, was “something else,” Butler said.
Jeff Long and his family drove from Fresno to Elk Grove to see Larson in person. They were in Phoenix to watch his Cup-clinching win. Long carried a bright orange sign telling the crowd he was at the Arizona raceway for the historic win and said he wasn’t about to miss this moment.
“It’s really amazing to see it,” Long said. “He’s brought the rest of us with him. We need bright spots right now and he embodies that for a lot of us.”
Larson, 29, won the season in dominating fashion, capped by his season-ending victory at Phoenix International Raceway. The runaway season victory also capped quite the comeback story. A man without a team and mired in controversy after uttering a racial slur in 2020 while racing online, Larson’s victorious 2021 season was as redemptive as it was dominant, said Dante Coleman, of Elk Grove, who is Black.
“For me, this moment was the redemption coming full circle for him,” said Coleman, who brought young son Dylan to the hometown rally. “It speaks to how Elk Grove is. One mistake doesn’t have to cancel him out. He owned it, he didn’t try to run from it, he learned about it away from the spotlight. He did the work.”
Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen also alluded to the controversy to show how “you rise and show true character. In your darkest days, you rose. We can always be better and do better,” Singh-Allen told Larson. “We are all so proud of you today.”
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