DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It’s been nearly a year since Kyle Larson last strapped into a NASCAR Cup Series race car to compete.

In that time a lot has happened to the native of Elk Grove, Calif. He lost his job at Chip Ganassi Racing and was suspended by NASCAR after the use of a racial slur, he barnstormed across the United States winning dirt-track races like it was going out of style and wrapped up the year by being reinstated by NASCAR and securing a job with Hendrick Motorsports.

While Larson’s story isn’t complete, it has the makings of one of motorsports’ greatest redemption stories.

“I feel extremely grateful,” Larson said Monday. “I never really thought I would get another chance to race in NASCAR and I kind of accepted that throughout the middle of last year and I tried to shift my focus towards what’s ahead in my new life of racing a bunch, driving up and down the road and stuff like that. I was trying to figure out how that would be with my family, my kids, once they start school.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity that Mr. H (Rick Hendrick) has given me. It’s pretty unbelievable and I’m very thankful. I hope to do a good job for everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and all my sponsors – just do a good job on and off the track to really take advantage of this second chance that I may not have deserved.”

A lot has changed since Larson last competed in a NASCAR event on March 8, 2020 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. COVID-19 has since swept across the globe, forcing all forms of sport to adapt in order to continue.

NASCAR is no different. With the exception of a handful of events, most NASCAR Cup Series races will not feature qualifying or practice. Instead, most lineups will be set by a formula of statistics.

The schedule has changed drastically as well. Gone are tracks such as Kentucky Speedway and Auto Club Speedway, at least for now. They’ve been replaced by a multitude of road courses, including new events at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

While those would all be jarring changes for most people, for Larson the biggest change will be getting used to sitting in a stock car again as opposed to the sprint cars and midgets he drove most of last season.

“I guess the biggest adjustment is getting the cockpit right,” Larson said. “Even though we have the measurements and stuff from when I was in the No. 42 car (at Ganassi), now things don’t maybe feel the same because I’ve been out of a car so long and my body has kind of gotten accustomed to sitting upright in a sprint car or midget. So, getting in the cockpit and trying to remember — OK the shifter feels normal there; my pedal distance feels right or it doesn’t; the throttle and brake geometry and stuff like that I think has probably been the toughest part to remember if that’s comfortable or not.”

Speaking of his dirt racing efforts, Larson isn’t giving that up. He’s publicly stated he plans to keep racing on dirt as often as he can when he’s not racing the No. 5 Chevrolet for Rick Hendrick.

“Dirt racing has always been something I can go back to whenever I’ve had a rough stretch of things in NASCAR and kind of turn my confidence around and get my attitude going in the right direction,” said Larson, who won the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals for the second consecutive year in mid-January. “That’s kind of what this past year of getting back to racing sprint cars and midgets, and even the late model stuff, kind of helped me do. And I’ve had my best season ever in a race car, so whenever you’re winning, that’s always helping things.”

One event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule that most have assumed will be in Larson’s dirt wheelhouse is the inaugural NASCAR dirt race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March.

At this point Larson says he isn’t putting any additional thought or focus into that event. In fact, he’s not so sure he should even be considered the favorite.

“Being a dirt racer, maybe I’m just trying to downplay it, but I don’t think myself, (Christopher) Bell, Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) or whoever the other dirt guys are in the field, aren’t going to have a huge advantage over everybody,” Larson explained. “I really believe that, if the weather cooperates and things like that, it’s going to be smooth, rubber down, one lane, kind of like a pavement race. So, I don’t think the running order is going to look much different than a normal race weekend at any other race track or any other oval.

“But I also don’t know because we haven’t been there yet, so I could be totally wrong. And I hope I am — I hope I’m way wrong and I go out there and dominate every time we hit the track and I hope I have an advantage over everybody. But I don’t think it’s going to be that big.”

However, before he gets to Bristol or anywhere else, Larson’s attention is focused squarely on Daytona Int’l Speedway for Sunday’s 63rd running of the Daytona 500.

“I feel like time has flown by for me up until these last two or three weeks,” Larson said. “It’s felt like forever to get down to Daytona. I drove my bus down yesterday and was just excited to get to that day — get to Sunday to get to drive it because I felt like once I got down here, things will start moving a little bit quicker again.

“It’s been so long since I’ve been in a Cup car. Now that I’m with a great team, there’s just a lot that I’m excited about. I’m excited to get on track, get racing and competing, and getting to work with a bunch of new guys.”