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Kyle Larson reflects on wild ride to third career Chili Bowl Nationals win

JHby:Jonathan Howard•01/20/25•

Jondean25

Kyle Larson
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

On the way to his third-career Chili Bowl Nationals win, Kyle Larson had not one but two moments when it looked like his race was done for. Larson has won this event in 2020, 2021, and now 2025. On top of his Tulsa Shootout performance, he has three Golden Drillers for this year alone.

Kyle Larson is the guy who hops into whatever and gets the job done. But in his midget car on dirt, he is in his element. Larson joins Christopher Bell and the father-son duo of Sammy and Kevin Swindell as the only three-time winners ever in the Chili Bowl.

With the third Golden Driller now secured, Larson passes the likes of Tony Stewart and Rico Abreu. He is now tied with Bell, perhaps his biggest competition on dirt and asphalt talent-wise.

Kyle Larson ran over a lapped car early on. Late in the race he hit the wall and ripped a banner down. Still, the pole-sitter never gave up the lead despite a hard charge from Daison Pursley.

“I just ramped kinda over the front of his race car and yeah, kind of just jumped him, really,” Larson explained in the postrace press conference. “It stalled midair and when it was getting ready to land I was just like, ‘Please, please, please refire.’ And it refired. So, yeah, I felt like, you know, you only get one break not two, and then later on I got another big break.”

The second break was perhaps the deciding factor in the race. He got away with one here.

Kyle Larson catches second break with five laps to go

After the early incident, Kyle Larson went to work. He was fantastic on the track and kept running that high line on the cushion for the most part. It looked like that line was threatening to wreck him at any moment.

At one point, it almost did.

“I made a mistake on the frontstretch and kind of was on top of the wall and it shot me off of it,” Larson continued. “Thought I was going to flip similar to kind of how I did last year on the prelim night. I didn’t know it at the time but it ripped the banner down. So, I thought that they threw the caution for me. Before I got back around the other side, I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know how they’re going to score this. If they’re going to have me be the cause of the caution if I’ll get penalized or anything.’ But I saw the banner there and so I was like, okay that’s good maybe I’ll keep my spot.”

The incident ended up being good for Kyle Larson. At least, it didn’t hurt his chances of winning. There was already part of the banner on the track. After Larson tore down the rest, a caution had to be thrown.

So, with about five laps to go, Larson went to work once again. Daison Pursley made a hard push late. It just wasn’t enough. Yung Money walked away with his third Chili Bowl Nationals title.