Kyle Larson's early NASCAR win should not be mistaken as redemption for saying a racist slur

You could see the narrative coming from miles away, literally. As Kyle Larson led the final 30 laps of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on his way to victory, you could see the potential for his on-track success to shape a misguided redemption arc in his return to the sport’s highest level.

With a dominant performance, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver claimed his first checkered flag of the 2021 season. It was also his first win since his previous team fired him in April after saying the N-word during a live-streamed iRacing event.

But, as the congratulations pour in, it’s imperative to remember that Larson’s early 2021 win cannot be mistaken as redemption for saying the racist slur. It cannot be part of some absolution narrative about his hypothetical growth, nor viewed as compensation for the pain he caused and perpetuated.

Professional success mitigating personal failures is a common and noticeable pattern throughout the sports world, and we should halt it as it begins to unfold here.

After Larson’s win, Chip Ganassi — who fired Larson after he used the racist slur last year — tweeted about the driver’s “nice comeback,” as if the 28 year old persevered after a brutal injury or is trying to bounce back after a down stretch of races.

“Everybody loves a good redemption story,” Brad Keselowski said after finishing second to Larson. “He’s fought really hard for his opportunity to come back and making the most of it. … I told him I wanted to win the damn race. But if I couldn’t, I’m glad he did. We’ve all been kind of pulling for him.”

This isn’t a comeback story like a questionable return after a scary wreck or a team suddenly folding and leaving everyone scrambling to save their careers and livelihoods. Larson was — and should continue to be — held accountable for his words, and any fighting he did was simply trying to recover from the consequences of his own behavior.

After the race, Keselowski was among those to congratulate Larson in person, as was Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series who previously condemned Larson’s language but advocated for him getting a second chance in NASCAR.

Rooting for Larson is one thing. But establishing his win as part of some contrived redemption arc is a fallacy.

Larson is an exceptional driver, and it was an impressive win. But it’s not some arbitrary signal that he is off the hook for his heinous behavior last year because, really, there is nothing he could possibly accomplish on track to make up for the harm he’s done outside of it.

Before the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, Larson acknowledged that he still has work to do to atone for what he did. As I wrote at the time, that work needs to go beyond making amends and include him consciously, actively and vocally being anti-racist.

A check in the 2021 win column doesn’t change that.

Larson’s absence from all but four races during the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season was no one’s fault but his own, so treating his on-track success like he’s overcome a gigantic hurdle is an insult, particularly to the people he harmed and offended. It makes it seem like their pain and disappointment can be erased with enough strong lap times or wins.

He said something racist, hateful and demeaning that contributed to centuries’ worth of violence and injustice against Black people. Fast cars, fun races or checkered flags don’t compensate for that.

This isn’t to say don’t congratulate Larson or ignore how his early success this season could impact the rest of the year. But we can’t conflate a win on track with his humanity off it.