Inside The Garage: Kyle Larson Having Fun In ‘Challenging’ Year Despite No Wins

Kyle Larson didn’t enter The Chase trying to win a race or win his third NASCAR Cup Series title. The defending champion insisted Wednesday that he and his team just want to “do the best job” they can every week. The best Sunday at Darlington Raceway might have been fifth. Staying out on older tires for a restart with 24 laps remaining, he held everyone off for 12 laps before falling to fifth. He had hoped more than four cars would stay out, giving him enough of a buffer. So on a Sunday where he led a race-high 99 laps but also had a hiccup on a pit stop, he came up empty once again. Ultimately, he saw his winless streak extend to 51 races. The Hendrick Motorsports driver just can’t seem to find enough speed when it matters or be able to make something happen as he has done so many times in the past. Part of that has been the transition to a new body for the Chevrolets, as the manufacturer has six wins this year in 27 races. Only two of those have come from Hendrick, with Chase Elliott earning two victories earlier in the year. “At times, it has been sad meetings,” Larson said about the competition debrief they do every week. “At times it’s been happy meetings. At times, it’s been where we need a little pick-me-up from the boss of motivation and stuff. “But I would say the good thing with Hendrick Motorsports is there’s no — at least in my time of being there — there’s no finger pointing. There’s nobody calling anybody out. It’s just, especially in these moments, it’s like ‘All right, we know we have an issue, let’s try and just figure it out.'” And despite it all, Larson said he has enjoyed this season. After the fifth-place finish Sunday, he’s seventh in the standings and still within striking distance of winning a title at 49 points behind Denny Hamin. “As challenging as this year has been, I’ve had a lot of fun with it because it’s been just encouraging and just cool to see everybody working so hard,” Larson said. “As weird as that sounds, I’ve enjoyed this year as much or more than some others — just because of the effort that’s been put in.” The effort has gotten them to the point where they can lead laps again. And to Larson, that shows progress. “It’s been a challenging season for sure,” Larson said. “I’m proud of the effort and proud of the work and fight that we put in because in those first few months, I thought there’d be for sure no way we’d have even opportunities to win. “And I feel like we’ve had a few this year that narrowly slipped away. I feel like our race cars have gotten better.” Larson said the team has changed its outlook somewhat. “You’ve just got to kind of, you know, adjust your expectations from early in the year and then set out to try and do as good a job as you can,” Larson said. “We’re trying really hard. I know it might not seem like that, but we’re probably trying harder than we’ve ever tried before.” And that includes in the races because they can’t compensate for mistakes. Or even just choosing what could turn out to be not the winning strategy. He was fourth when he stayed out on old tires and finished fifth. So they lost one point while taking a swing at a strategy that, if they won, would have been 22 points more than where they were running. “I feel like we have to execute a perfect day right now to finish fifth,” Larson said in that interview on Wednesday. “That still doesn’t change the fact that I’m proud of the team for the effort and all that. You can not have as much speed as you want, but it’s going to be more annoying if everybody’s content with that — and nobody’s content with that. “We’re all working hard. That keeps me motivated. … We know what success feels like. So we’re just itching to get there. It’s just been fun to see the hard work and everybody maintaining their processes and trying to get back there.” Part of the process is keeping a notebook. And Larson wants to follow that notebook each weekend in The Chase unless there is good reason to take a huge swing. The Toyotas have been the dominant manufacturer this year with 15 wins in the 27 races. “There’s some tracks in The Chase like Phoenix where we’re garbage at that I’m totally open to trying anything new. … We’re in a good spot with what we need to maximize our car, but just finding that next level — we’re still working hard to figure out.” New INDYCAR Performance Standards INDYCAR has set standards for Indy NXT drivers to be eligible to compete in INDYCAR. Any driver who finishes in the top three in the series or has at least two wins in the last two years is automatically qualified. A driver with one Indy NXT win is “evaluation eligible,” meaning the driver can do an INDYCAR driver evaluation test. If not, then a résumé review is required before even getting to do an evaluation test. Drivers from other series will be judged based on their performance in those series. The driver this could impact the most is Josh Pierson, who apparently has been pursuing an INDYCAR ride with funding he brings. Pierson won his first career Indy NXT race Saturday, a few days after the standards were announced. “I know a lot of people have put a lot of stuff out there about me. People seem to talk about stuff that I don’t even know about,” Pierson said during his winner news conference Saturday. “For me, it really hasn’t been my concern. I’ve been able to focus on myself, do what I need to do to improve, find my footing. I feel like this has been a huge confidence boost, morale boost for the team coming off a rough year.” In The News — Alpha Prime Racing will change manufacturers for its two-car, full-time O’Reilly Series program as it moves from Chevrolet to Ford. It will field Fords in select events this year before going fully Ford in 2027. It will get engines from Roush Yates Engines. — Dreyer & Reinbold will move from Chevrolet to Honda as it goes from an Indianapolis 500 program only to a full-season INDYCAR program. It will have an alliance with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The specifics of the alliance are still to be determined. — Josh Bilicki will attempt to make the 2027 Daytona 500 with Garage 66. — Laguna Seca has named its infamous corkscrew section after Alex Zanardi who made an incredible pass 30 years ago to win the race. Zanardi, a beloved two-time series champion who lost his legs in a 2001 racing accident and later won Paralympic gold medals, died earlier this year. — Nikita Johnson won the Indy NXT title with runner-up finishes in both races at Laguna Seca. The rookie outlasted another rookie, Enzo Fittipaldi, in the final standings. Fittipaldi led the series with four wins. — Longtime motorsports journalist and key figure in the creation of the Motor Racing Network, Jim Foster, will be awarded the 2027 Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. He’s also a former Daytona track president. Picture This Social Spotlight They Said It “It’s been too damn long.”— Christopher Bell after his first win of the year