Season of change: NASCAR's Next Gen car arrives for 2022

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Kyle Larson balanced a car seat on a suitcase while the thick strap from another bag pulled tight around his neck. Both his kids were spinning on the metal stanchions outside LAX and Larson couldn't find the bus to the rental cars.

“Just what a champion looks like, huh?” he laughed.

The NASCAR champ. He's just like us.

NASCAR throws its version of the Super Bowl this Sunday to open its 2022 season. The Daytona 500 is the official kickoff, though NASCAR opened two weeks prior to “The Great American Race" with a star-studded, experimental exhibition inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Clash for more than four decades opened “Speedweeks,” which has now been whittled down to just six days of cars on the track. NASCAR's decision to move the event away from Daytona International Speedway, its only home since its 1979, angered purists but it was a smashing success and NASCAR must now figure out how take advantage of the buzz through Daytona and the next 37 weeks of racing.

Larson will be a key player in NASCAR's push to widen its reach to a younger and more racially diverse audience. The reigning champion returned to the series last year to drive for Hendrick Motorsports following a nearly yearlong 2020 suspension for using a racial slur.

Larson had an unbelievable return, winning 10 times, the Cup Series title and the All-Star race, all while also crisscrossing the country to run a sprint car in his spare time. Larson is a fan favorite and represents the kind of grass-roots racer NASCAR fans have long embraced.

But many others relate to the 29-year-old for other reasons: He's a father and a family man, a symbol of redemption, a changing of the guard. Larson is also half-Japanese and