KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Nobody has ever dominated Kansas Speedway the best way Kyle Larson did Sunday afternoon.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet paced the sphere for 221 of 267 laps — a whopping 82.7% of the occasion. These are probably the most laps anybody driver has ever led in a race at Kansas, a monitor that started internet hosting Cup in 2001 — 24 years in the past. He additionally scored the primary “good” race of 2025 — a Stage 1 win, a Stage 2 win, the race win and a bonus level for posting the Xfinity Quickest Lap of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 — to go away the Sunflower State blooming with 61 factors earned, seven playoff factors added to his tally and an prolonged NASCAR Cup Collection factors lead.
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The accomplishments maintain coming from Larson, together with the adornment of “Best of All-Time” from followers and opponents alike who can’t assist however admire what he’s doing behind the wheel. So it’s that rather more becoming that this win comes through the month of Might, simply two weeks earlier than Larson will try the Memorial Day Weekend Double of the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the identical day for the second straight season.
There’s a sense of deja vu that comes with this victory. Larson sparked his 2024 Double marketing campaign with a Kansas win too on the entrance facet of Might, with the California native occurring to qualify sixth for his inaugural Indy 500 try. However on Memorial Weekend Sunday, Mom Nature supplied the largest buzzkill possible, each delaying the Indy 500 and shortening the Coke 600 to stop him from ever stepping into the Cup automotive that day. Making issues worse, a late rushing penalty at Indy dropped Larson from a possible top-10 end all the way down to 18th on the checkered flag.
So, as observe for the Indy 500 begins Tuesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, maybe Sunday’s win at Kansas — his third of 2025 and second in 4 weeks — could be the beginning of a brand new, much less irritating journey towards carrying out his long-targeted aim of finishing 1,100 racing miles in in the future in 2025. It’s, at the least, a step in the fitting course.
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“Clearly, confidence is one thing that’s vital in everyone’s life, and proper now he’s bought numerous it,” mentioned Chad Knaus, a seven-time Cup champion as a former crew chief and presently Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman of competitors.
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – MAY 11: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after successful the NASCAR Cup Collection AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Might 11, 2025 in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas. (Picture by Chris Graythen/Getty Pictures)
Larson has pushed and can drive any sort of race automotive you might think about: inventory automotive, open-wheel automotive, dash automotive, go-kart. If it’s bought wheels, Larson’s racing it — and as a rule, he’s competing to win in it. Final week was no exception. On Friday night time, Larson was piloting a dust dash automotive at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas and was concerned in a daunting crash. By Saturday morning, he was again in his Cup automotive prefer it by no means occurred, rocketing to the pole for Sunday’s race. And after Sunday’s domination, he was on a aircraft to Indianapolis prepping to get behind the wheel of a dash automotive on Monday at Kokomo Speedway.
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What crew chief Cliff Daniels sees on Sundays is the mix of Larson’s otherworldly expertise paired with fixed seat time, propelling your complete No. 5 group ahead. But it surely’s additionally catapulted by Larson’s innate means to not dwell on the highs or lows of his varied endeavors.
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“For him, as many instances as he races — and he’s talked about this earlier than — he simply doesn’t carry stuff over,” Daniels mentioned. “He had a heck of a spill the opposite night time within the Excessive Restrict (dash automotive) race and walks proper into the NASCAR race able to go. He doesn’t carry one race to the following. Clearly, momentum generally is a actual factor and is all the time an excellent factor. However for him, he’s racing on a regular basis, so I feel he’s simply able to go.”
Certainly, Larson attributes his “brief reminiscence” to the frequency with which he races. With one other occasion on the docket, there’s no time to get caught up within the minutia.
“I do suppose it’s as a result of I race lots, I’m guessing,” Larson mentioned. “I might say that that’s a giant a part of me having the ability to transfer on shortly from issues, whether or not it’s an excellent race or a nasty race, a wreck or good end result, unhealthy end result, errors on monitor. Clearly, although, if (a poor end result) occurs a number of instances in a row, it could possibly form of linger slightly bit longer, however extra so simply damage your confidence slightly bit. However, yeah, I don’t know. I feel I simply race lots.”
For now, the streak he’s on has been almost fully optimistic. To attain three Cup wins in 12 races marks the quickest ascent to the hat trick of Larson’s decade-long profession. He leads the sequence standings by 35 factors over Hendrick teammate William Byron and has beforehand gained at every of the following 4 stops on the NASCAR calendar: North Wilkesboro Speedway (host of this weekend’s exhibition All-Star Race), Charlotte Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan Worldwide Speedway. To attain his third Kansas triumph with alternatives for extra success forward ought to come as a warning shot to the remainder of the Cup Collection discipline.
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“It’s actually going to assist carry our momentum,” Daniels mentioned. “A whole lot of the issues that we’re going to remove from right this moment that I feel will likely be vital for us transferring ahead — should you take a look at the tip of Stage 1 and Stage 2, we weren’t as quick as we wished to be. And so I nonetheless suppose that there’s issues on the desk as a group that we have to go discover and go construct from and execute slightly bit higher with changes or automotive steadiness, no matter it might be. It’s going to be these sort of issues coupled with, after all, the win and momentum, which is all the time an excellent factor.
“However when you possibly can run up entrance and nonetheless stroll away and have areas to enhance, that’s what we take pleasure in. That’s what we’re going to remove.”
