Kyle Larson officially put the bow on his first touring Sprint Car championship on Tuesday night with the High Limit Sprint Car Series at Indiana’s Lincoln Park Speedway.

And while that result had been, by and large, inevitable ever since Larson announced the schedule for the inaugural 11-race tour with brother-in-law Brad Sweet last December, the path to getting there was far from run-of-the-mill.

The 31-year-old Elk Grove, Calif., native had to hold off a surging Rico Abreu, who in the end came seven points shy of upending Larson’s championship campaign, which is quite the subplot considering the gap had been 49 points after June 6 at Nebraska’s Eagle Raceway. 

Abreu won four of the last six High Limit Series races, including Tuesday, to force Larson to earn the title in the finale in which he had to finish sixth or better. At one point, Larson dropped to seventh before clawing his way to a third-place finish.

WATCH: Highlights from Tuesday's High Limit Sprint Car Series finale at Lincoln Park Speedway.

It’s the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s first Sprint Car title since capturing the 2010 NARC King of the West points deal — California’s premier 410 regional series — with the Kaeding family.

“Although it was a short series, it’s still intense,” Larson said. “I think when it’s a short season like that, you really have to be on your game and can’t make mistakes, especially when battling guys like Rico who are up front ever night no matter what track, what style the track, what series they’re at.

“They’re going to be hard to beat. It feels good. He had some issues there at Lakeside (a flat tire befell him from the lead) and ultimately took him out. Still, we had to be on our game. He was still chipping away at it the last five or six races. Fun battle and cool to win the inaugural one. Hopefully I can get the chance to keep doing this and my schedule works out to make all these midweek races work and try and get another one next year.”

Larson’s three-win burst in a month’s span over the summer — May 16 at Ohio’s Wayne County Speedway, May 31 at Illinois’ Tri-City Speedway and June 6 at Eagle Raceway — proved to be the difference in what he could control in the title fight.

Abreu’s misfortune in the April 11 opener at Lakeside, on the other hand, is what Larson mentions before any other on-track scenario. That night, Abreu appeared on his way to victory until a flat tire in the late stages caused him to finish 22nd.

That’s a 33-point swing and would have given Abreu an 18-point cushion heading into Tuesday’s finale. Larson’s only touring blemish is when he jumped the cushion while leading Sept. 26’s event at Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway, which in turn caused him to finish eighth, his worst result of the series season.

Beyond the recognition and extra cash — $30,000 to be exact — for winning the title, Larson had an incentive luring him and keeping him a little more focused along the way this year. That’s the fancy and glittery ring he designed for the would-be series champion.

The bling has arrived. 💍 pic.twitter.com/kqAykq3SNJ

— High Limit Racing (@HighLimitRacing) October 10, 2023

“It’s pretty sick,” Larson said in victory lane as he marveled at the jewelry. “It was my idea to get the rings. They’re really cool. I’ve started collecting them; from winning NASCAR races I have them. I thought it’d be a cool idea to introduce that to this series. Southern Recognition's, they do an amazing job.
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“Obviously I’ve wanted to win it, so it feels really good. It was going to be special too if Rico could win it because this thing is awesome.”

As far as reflecting on High Limit’s first year of operation, Larson said “we’ve gotten better as the season's gone on” and “I think we’ve gotten more efficient for sure.” By the end of the season, the checkered flag had fallen consistently before 9:30 p.m. local time.

“That’s a huge thank you and congrats to Brad, (Josh Peterman) … everybody. Everybody on the Flo side of things to make it happen and make it work,” Larson said. “We couldn’t do it without them. All the sponsors, too. We have so many people supporting this series.

“And the fans especially, too. To have them at the racetrack means a lot to us and also at home. Our viewership has been amazing this year. That’s been really good, and hopefully we can continue to grow.”

There’s always room, of course, for the tour to improve. And with a series title stashed away and 11 races for the series to now build on, Larson’s focus now shifts to refining and working out the details for the 2024 season.

“Like I said, we’ve gotten better as the year’s gone on and we’ve definitely had our hiccups, as any new company would in their first year,” Larson said. “Overall feel like we’ve excelled and at least exceeded my expectations. I know Brad is a perfectionist and you could always do better. We just have to continue to get better. That’s the goal.”