KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Nobody has ever dominated Kansas Speedway the way in which 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 essentially the most laps anyone driver has ever led in a race at Kansas, a observe 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 depart 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 hold coming from Larson, together with the adornment of “Biggest 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 Could, 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 Could, with the California native happening to qualify sixth for his inaugural Indy 500 try. However on Memorial Weekend Sunday, Mom Nature provided the largest buzzkill possible, each delaying the Indy 500 and shortening the Coke 600 to forestall him from ever entering into the Cup automotive that day. Making issues worse, a late dashing penalty at Indy dropped Larson from a possible top-10 end right down to 18th on the checkered flag.
So, as apply 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 — will be the beginning of a brand new, much less irritating journey towards conducting his long-targeted aim of finishing 1,100 racing miles in sooner or later in 2025. It’s, at the least, a step in the appropriate path.
“Clearly, confidence is one thing that’s vital in all people’s life, and proper now he’s obtained a variety of it,” stated Chad Knaus, a seven-time Cup champion as a former crew chief and at the moment Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman of competitors.
Larson has pushed and can drive any kind of race automotive you might think about: inventory automotive, open-wheel automotive, dash automotive, go-kart. If it’s obtained wheels, Larson’s racing it — and most of the time, he’s competing to win in it. Final week was no exception. On Friday evening, Larson was piloting a mud 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 airplane 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 entire No. 5 group ahead. Nevertheless it’s additionally catapulted by Larson’s innate means to not dwell on the highs or lows of his varied endeavors.
“For him, as many instances as he races — and he’s talked about this earlier than — he simply doesn’t carry stuff over,” Daniels stated. “He had a heck of a spill the opposite evening 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 subsequent. Clearly, momentum is usually a actual factor and is at all times a superb 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 assume it’s as a result of I race quite a bit, I’m guessing,” Larson stated. “I’d say that that’s an enormous a part of me with the ability to transfer on shortly from issues, whether or not it’s a superb race or a nasty race, a wreck or good outcome, dangerous outcome, errors on observe. Clearly, although, if (a poor outcome) occurs a number of instances in a row, it might probably type of linger a little bit bit longer, however extra so simply damage your confidence a little bit bit. However, yeah, I don’t know. I feel I simply race quite a bit.”
For now, the streak he’s on has been almost solely 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 collection standings by 35 factors over Hendrick teammate William Byron and has beforehand received at every of the subsequent 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.
“It’s definitely going to assist carry our momentum,” Daniels stated. “A number of the issues that we’re going to remove from at this time that I feel might be vital for us shifting ahead — for those who take a look at the top of Stage 1 and Stage 2, we weren’t as quick as we wished to be. And so I nonetheless assume that there’s issues on the desk as a group that we have to go discover and go construct from and execute a little bit bit higher with changes or automotive stability, no matter it could be. It’s going to be these kind of issues coupled with, after all, the win and momentum, which is at all times a superb factor.
“However when you possibly can run up entrance and nonetheless stroll away and have areas to enhance, that’s what we get pleasure from. That’s what we’re going to remove.”
