Who Is Kyle Larson’s Wife? All About Katelyn Sweet
Kyle Larson and Katelyn Sweet met through racing
Kyle Larson and Katelyn Sweet have become a racing power couple.
Larson first met Sweet at a race near his hometown of Elk Grove, California. Sweet grew up in nearby Grass Valley with her brother Brad Sweet, who is also a professional race car driver. Shortly after meeting, Larson and Sweet began dating. They began a family together with the birth of their first son, Owen, in 2014.
On Owen's 3rd birthday — and not long after they announced that they were pregnant with their second baby — Larson popped the question. Sweet said yes and announced their engagement on X (formerly Twitter). The couple later welcomed their second baby, daughter Audrey Layne, in May 2018, and their third child, son Cooper Donald, in December 2022.
"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 to Kyle Larson.
She is an athlete
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 on Instagram with 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 a throwback photo from her riding days. She reposted the photo from her mom, who wrote, "Racing was in the family but Katelyn controlled her own horse power."
She met Larson through her brother
Sweet met Larson thanks to her brother, Brad, who is also a professional driver. Brad is a veteran of the World of Outlaws Sprint 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 podcast Rippin' 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."
She is a mother
On Dec. 22, 2014, the couple welcomed their first baby, Owen Miyata Larson. Larson shared on X that his son was born at 11:09 p.m., weighed in at 7 lbs., 14 oz., and measured 19? inches.
On May 7, 2018, the parents welcomed their second child, daughter Audrey Layne Larson. "??We are so in love! ??," Sweet wrote on Instagram of 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 2023, Sweet gave birth to their third child, son Cooper Donald Larson. "Welcome to the family! We are all obsessed," she wrote on Instagram.
She wed Larson in 2018
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.
She supports Larson's racing career
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 to Autoweek.
"Everything happens so quick, and he gets out quick, so that's helpful," Sweet told USA Network of how she copes in these stressful situations. "I think that if there's any time stopped, that's when I get nervous."
She's a TV star
In 2022, USA Network premiered Race for the Championship reality 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."
She advocates for their daughter
In an interview with NASCAR journalist Toby Christie, Sweet shared that their daughter Audrey had been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease alopecia, which leads to hair loss, in December 2019. Audrey began experiencing symptoms when she was 18 months old. Sweet also shared that Audrey had many allergies, including dairy.
"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.
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Read the original article on People.