Kyle Larson had a career-best outing at the Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. He finished as the runner-up following Ryan Preece’s disqualification and recorded his second consecutive top-five finish at the Alabama track. While this is certainly a moment to celebrate, the possibility that he could have reached Victory Lane had it not been for the shortcomings of the Next Gen car cannot be ignored.
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Larson has always found it tricky to navigate the superspeedways. But this time, he changed that narrative around to a great extent. He won Stage 1 and finished second in Stage 2. After heading to the pits for the final time on Lap 171, he got back into the mix behind Austin Cindric, who’d captured the lead. Ryan Preece, then, flew past him on the outside line.
With Cindric and Preece on the front row, Larson and Byron settled in the second row, trying to destabilise the leaders. Unfortunately, they were never able to do so. While pleased with the day’s outcome, Larson had to express his frustration with the limitations of the Next Gen car.
Passing has been a longstanding issue with it, and its latest victim just so happened to be the Hendrick Motorsports duo this time. He said, “You are trying to do all you can to win without crashing the front row. I could have easily crashed the front row. But that’s not anything you want to see at the end of these races. Did all I could, I thought, in the final five laps or so.”
He admitted that passing was extremely difficult for some reason. But he couldn’t pinpoint what it was and left that for the experts to figure out.
“I think we would all wish for there to be a little bit easier to maneuver.”@KyleLarsonRacin criticizes the limitations of the Next Gen car in superspeedway racing and is unsure of what to fix. @WilliamByron also explains why he was unable to make a move on the last lap. pic.twitter.com/GtMVT0m6TD
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 28, 2025
“It’s just confusing sometimes when runs happen,” he noted. “I think we would all wish for there to be a little bit easier to maneuver – not maneuver – but, like, there at the end, you pick the pace up, and it’s just too wide. It’s just the two guys in the front row that have a shot to win.”
Cindric took advantage of the issues that his competitors faced and beat Preece to the checkered flag by 0.022 seconds. Kyle Larson scored a race-high 54 points and jumped two positions in the regular season championship standings to second place. Following his Stage 1 win, he is now the driver with the highest number of stage wins since the concept was introduced in 2017.
This result at ‘Dega is particularly impressive when looking at his past there. Before last fall, he went four races finishing outside the top-15. This is quite the turnaround for the No. 5 driver.
