Kyle Larson hasn’t won a NASCAR Cup Series race since May of 2025… but that doesn’t mean he’s not in championship contention.
The Elk Grove, California-native comes into the post-season as the seventh overall seed, and while the testimony amongst drivers in The Chase (except for Ryan Preece) has been that the real contenders will stand amongst the top-five or six, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion could be an exemption to that rule.
“The ceiling is a championship,” Larson said about his No. 5 HendrickCars.com team. “We’ve done it twice. I know it’s a previous format, but we would have done it in this format last year. There’s still a way to do it. So, absolutely, I think we can win the championship. It’s going to be tougher than most years, just with where we are at with the speed and deficit in points, but it’s absolutely doable.”
As an organization, Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t necessarily been the dominant force this season that they usually are in the NASCAR Cup Series, with only Chase Elliott making it to Victory Lane this season, doing so twice at Martinsville and Texas.
“I think this year, I think it’s fair to lower your expectations a little but some weekends, just based off where you’re at realistically. And I think that, a lot of times, that can help you execute better days, you know? You’re not reaching for something that’s not reachable. I think we’re in a really, really good spot as a team. We’re continuing to get our cars better. You know, we have gotten our cars better. I feel like from where we were in April, or even early May, we’re way better. I’m proud of our team for that, and we still have 10 weeks to get better. 10 weeks is a long time.”
Since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, Larson has not finished worse than seventh in NASCAR Cup Series point standings – the place where he begins the 10-race run to the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, this is the first time in the last five seasons driving the No. 5 Chevrolet that Larson has entered The Chase (or its former iteration known as The Playoffs) with less than 10 top-fives on a season.
Larson said Wednesday during Chase Media Day that his confidence wasn’t as high going into this year’s post-season as it has been in year’s past – but notes as the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, he also said that last year.
“I know there’s a path to do it. We did it last year without winning a race in the final 10 races, and we weren’t even really all that consistent, from what I remember. I think if we can be ultra-consistent in these final 10 races, there’s no doubt that I could see ourselves winning the championship.”
“I could also see ourselves winning four or five races in The Chase. You know, things have to go perfect, but we do have a lot of good tracks for us in these final 10. We just need to execute at a high level, and I think our team is definitely capable of that.”
It’ll be a tall task, but if Hendrick Motorsports is peaking at the right time, and Larson is over the bad luck of the Summer, then there’s no reason to believe that the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion can’t get it done… like he has several times before.
