Kyle Larson’s 2025 campaign was a paradox, a season crowned with a championship yet haunted by a stretch that nearly broke his rhythm. His second failed double duty attempt in May, which saw him crash out of the Indianapolis 500 on Lap 91 and later get collected in a wreck on Lap 246 of the Coca-Cola 600, left a dent in his results and confidence. For months after that chaotic weekend, wins dodged him.
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The swagger that defined Larson‘s driving gave way to frustration, even self-doubt. Still, by season’s end, Larson turned that bruising stretch into fuel for his title run, crediting a collective resolve from his Hendrick Motorsports crew to diagnose mistakes and claw their way back to form.
The No. 5 team’s midseason revival wasn’t instant, but it was instead forged in long nights and self-assessment. Larson admitted that those two months of “suboptimal setups and execution issues” tested everyone involved, but, in hindsight, built the foundation for their rebound.
“There was definitely some truth to mentally draining with how just didn’t do a good job, so kind of down, myself then lost confidence all at the same time. And then I think our race cars got little bit down the wrong path on our race cars, and we didn’t quite realize it for a while.”
For Larson, being “slow” was the wake-up call his team needed.
“I actually think being as slow as we were made us a better, stronger team as far as execution. And then we went to Darlington, and then struggled as a whole, eye-opening, I think. And then we quickly figured out where we had gotten off in those couple of months, and then I feel like we got back on track in competitive and running up front.”
What was the turning point for @KyleLarsonRacin this season?
️ “We quickly figured out where we had gotten off in those couple of months, and then I feel like we got back on track.”
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— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) November 9, 2025
Larson didn’t sugarcoat the struggle that followed, but then, the team attacked the second half of the season like a unit. Though he knew “ten weeks in the playoffs would be long enough to dig out of a slump,” he admitted they didn’t fully reclaim their pre-Indianapolis pace.
Yet the signs were unmistakable, laps led, stages won, and a consistency that whispered of the team’s old dominance. He believes they came close to what they were before the double-duty weekend.
