After another masterclass last week at Bristol, Kyle Larson is putting together one heck of a resume as the best driver in NASCAR.
While the debate rages on about whether Kyle Larson is a better all-around driver than Max Verstappen – a claim that Larson made back in August – the 2021 Cup Series champion leads the NASCAR playoff standings ahead of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway.
He won the Kansas spring race this year to extend his sheer dominance at intermediate tracks in the Next Gen era – a truly sensational run that underscores just how hard it is to keep pace with the No. 5 on a “cookie-cutter” track.
Larson unstoppable at intermediate tracks
Since NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car in 2022, one year after Larson won his first Cup Series title, he’s been on a mission to prove his supremacy on 1.5-mile tracks.
In 11 races at that intermediate length, Larson has four wins and has finished in the top five in seven of the eight races he finished – he posted a DNF in the other three.
The only outlier came this year at Texas, when his wheel literally came off to sully what ended up as a 21th-place finish.
So, when Larson runs without incident, he’s finished in the top four in all seven clean intermediate races in the Next Gen car.
He’s also led a staggering 1,097 laps in those 11 races. That means he’s averaging just under 100 laps led every time he gets behind the wheel at a 1.5-mile track.
He’s won three of his last five intermediate races, including two of his three attempts this year. He posted the sixth-fastest pace in practice this weekend at Kansas but qualified 11th for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.
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Will intermediate success help Larson win NASCAR title?
The good news for Larson is that a win Sunday – or even a strong showing – will put him in position to advance to the Round of 8 and contend for another berth in the Championship 4.
The bad news? The championship race remains at Phoenix, where he’s won just once in 20 career races in the Cup Series to clinch his 2021 title.
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He’s posted an average finish of 12.8 in five races since then, finishing 14th in the spring race there in March. He qualified first and led 201 laps in last year’s spring race but settled for fourth.
The No. 5 team still has some time to work out the kinks of a package for Phoenix. Until then, three of the next five races are at intermediate tracks, starting with Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.