Kyle Larson and Katelyn Sweet.Photo: Clint Spaulding/Variety/Penske Media/Getty
Kyle Larsonand Katelyn Sweet have become a racing power couple.
“Owen is a little fiery, high energy, redhead both on and off the track,” Larson told PEOPLE of his older son, who seems to enjoy racing almost as much as his father.
Here’s everything to know about Katelyn Sweet and her marriage toKyle Larson.
Katelyn Sweet riding a horse.Katelyn Larson Instagram
In 2019, Sweet completed her first half marathon after training for several months.
“If you would have told me 5 months ago to run a mile, I would complain and could barely get through it!” she wrote onInstagramwith a photo of her crossing the finish line. “I ran 13.1 miles in my first half marathon!”
Before she took up running, she was an equestrian. In 2017, Sweet posted athrowback photofrom her riding days. She reposted the photo from her mom, who wrote, “Racing was in the family but Katelyn controlled her own horse power.”
Kyle Larson and Katelyn Sweet with family.Katelyn Larson Instagram
Sweet met Larson thanks to her brother, Brad, who is also a professional driver. Brad is a veteran of theWorld of OutlawsSprint Car Series. The first time Larson and Sweet crossed paths was at a dirt race afterparty at his home track in Placerville, California, near where Sweet and her brother grew up.
“We’re all partying that night and whatever, and I think I was probably trying to show off for her and I end up getting wasted,” he recalled on the podcastRippin' It. “She and a couple of my other friends, obviously I was passed out, on the ground, in bad shape, and they colored all over me.”
Katelyn Sweet with her older son and daughter.Katelyn Larson Instagram
On May 7, 2018, the parents welcomed their second child, daughter Audrey Layne Larson. “💗We are so in love! 💗,” Sweet wrote onInstagramof the newborn.
“She’s probably the most competitive one out of both of them,” Larson shared with PEOPLE of Audrey in 2022. “She can’t wait to go race. She’s just not old enough yet. … I think she’s going to be the race car driver if I had to pick out of the two of them.”
On New Year’s Eve in 2022, Sweet gave birth to their third child, son Cooper Donald Larson. “Welcome to the family! We are all obsessed,” she wrote onInstagram.
The couple tied the knot on Sept. 26, 2018, in a farm wedding at a private estate in North Carolina. Their firstborn son, Owen, helped Sweet’s father walk her down the aisle.
The outdoor wedding ceremony and reception were complete with a custom wooden bar in the center of the tent. Their wedding cake was topped with figurines of themselves holding their two kids. Guests enjoyed a private fireworks show before the couple made their exit in a vintage car.
Kyler Larson with his wife Katelyn and two children.Jared C. Tilton/Getty
Sweet is always at Larson’s races cheering on her husband. When his races don’t end with her a celebratory shotgunned beer, she’s still there through it all.
In April 2019, Larson’s car flipped six times during the last lap of the GEICO 500 race at Talladega Superspeedway, according toAutoweek.
“Everything happens so quick, and he gets out quick, so that’s helpful,” Sweet toldUSA Networkof how she copes in these stressful situations. “I think that if there’s any time stopped, that’s when I get nervous.”
In 2022, USA Network premieredRace for the Championshipreality series, which followed NASCAR drivers and their families on and off the track. Its first season focused on the 2022 Cup Series and featured the Larson family.
“I haven’t seen any of the episodes that I’m even in, so [I] don’t know what they’re going to see about us,” Larson told the network in 2022. “I think it’s just getting a glimpse into seeing our lives away from the race track, [which] to me would be the most compelling thing to view. I mean, we put our pants on the same way everyone else does, so for people to get to see that we are normal like them, I think it’d be good.”
Katelyn Sweet and Kyle Larson with their daughter.Katelyn Larson Instagram
“I would stress about it and be very emotional about it because as much as I knew nothing really bad was happening to her — it was just hair that was being lost — people would look at you and stare at you and ask, ‘Why does she always have a hat on her head?’ " she told Christie. “She kind of looked like she was going through chemotherapy losing her hair. I just wanted to protect her from anything that might come out later. But I also think it’s good to talk about it and let people know that things are happening in our lives.”
The family decided to share the diagnosis to honor Alopecia Awareness Month. They also created a T-shirt to sell in Larson’s online shop that benefitted an alopecia organization; in September 2022, proceeds from the shirt supported the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.
source: people.com