Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro seemed to be running on steroids at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. It pierced through the field over the Brickyard 400’s 160 laps in blistering pace and carried the driver to his fourth victory of the season. The success also meant that Larson is now the only driver to win multiple crown jewel races with a NextGen car.
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Since the 7th generation Cup Series car was unveiled in 2022, no one driver has won more than a single crown jewel race. Denny Hamlin won the 2022 Coca-Cola 600. William Byron won this year’s Daytona 500. And other drivers including Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell have all had equal shares of the pie over the last three years. But now, Larson is the one with the biggest piece.
The first of his two crown jewel victories in the NextGen car came in the 2023 Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway. He kicked off last season’s playoff run by taming the track that’s deemed “too tough to tame.” On Sunday, he made sure to multiply the count. He was caught in a late stage battle with Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney but luck ended up favoring him.
Keselowski ran out of fuel in the final restart and gave up his position to Larson. The Hendrick driver used it to his advantage and ended up getting the better of Blaney to conquer the Brickyard 400. Notably, this is the third crown jewel victory in his career. He won the 2021 Coca-Cola 600 from behind the wheel of the 6th Gen Cup Series car.
Primarily noteworthy amongst those who have a single crown jewel victory in the NextGen era is Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the 600-miler at Charlotte in 2022. It was his first win in the fixture. He does, however, have a horde of crown jewel victories in cars from the previous generations. Larson’s teammate Byron kicked 2024 on the strongest footing by winning the Daytona 500.
It was his first crown jewel victory of any kind. Defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney was the winner of the 2023 Coca-Cola 600. The result was one of the three victories that aided him in his maiden championship run. Christopher Bell, who is turning out to be a dark horse for the 2024 title, won the same race this year.
He took the speed to a Charlotte track under dark and cloudy skies earlier this year and emerged victorious. Others who’ve won crown jewel races in the NextGen car are Erik Jones (2022 Southern 500), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2023 Daytona 500), and Austin Cindric (2022 Daytona 500).
