2025 has been a year of two halves for Kyle Larson. After a brilliant start, he has fallen off. His playoff form has only raised more eyebrows, even though the driver thinks that he is on the right track, as he recently admitted.
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Larson burst out of the gates in the first 12 races with three wins and eight top-five finishes. But after stretching himself thin with a double-duty attempt, the tide turned. He tried to reset by returning to his roots, wheeling dirt cars in the High Limit Racing Series, yet the magic that defined his spring has not fully returned.
The first round told the tale. At Darlington, all of Hendrick Motorsports stumbled, and Larson limped home in 19th. Gateway brought only a 12th-place finish, and Bristol ended with him mired in 32nd. Larson, however, insists on seeing the positives.
At Round 12 in New Hampshire, Larson voiced quiet confidence. “I feel like we are really close and capable of getting back to form. There’s times throughout weekends and races where it might not show up on TV or on the results, but I feel like we’re we’re good. So, feel like we’ve quietly been making progress.”
“But yeah, then we qualify bad. So, it’s like every time I feel like we’re going to, you make a step in the right direction, we don’t quite get it. But, we’re only through qualifying, so we still have the race tomorrow.”
Larson pointed to flashes that the box score misses. He noted speed at Iowa before the chaos of restarts, progress at Richmond compared to prior years, and strength at Gateway, where he felt like one of the best cars despite finishing 12th. In his words, the No. 5 driver has been quietly getting better, even if nobody outside the garage notices.
That said, Larson’s history at New Hampshire paints a sobering picture. Despite a solid 11.2 average finish in 12 starts, he has led only eight total laps at Loudon since 2014. It is a track where he has often knocked on the door but never broken through. The potential is there, but the front of the field has remained just out of reach.
Practice and qualifying offered mixed signals. Larson will roll off 16th, while William Byron and Alex Bowman gave Hendrick stronger starting positions in fifth and seventh. Chase Elliott, meanwhile, will line up deep in 27th.
This race could swing Hendrick’s fortunes in this round, either easing the pressure or turning up the heat.
