Kyle Larson Leads Hendrick Motorsports to Historic Talladega Run Ending 14-Year NASCAR Drought

Hendrick Motorsports ace Kyle Larson had a career-best performance at the iconic Alabama track, Talladega, during Sunday’s Cup Series action. Although superspeedways aren’t his traditional strong suit, the 2021 Cup Series champion put on a clinical performance to break the 14-year-old HMS drought at ‘Dega,’ stringing his second straight top 5 finish.

Kyle Larson Snaps HMS’s Long Talladega Dry Spell in Style

For most of his career, Talladega seemed to have Larson’s number. Over seven years, he logged just one top 10 finish in 13 starts at the 2.6-mile superspeedway. Even as recently as a year ago, the 32-year-old had managed only a single top 5 finish in 19 appearances. But after Sunday’s 188-lap ringer, Larson has now strung together back-to-back top-5 finishes at “Dega.”

Starting 25th on Sunday, Larson dominated the field, winning stage 1 of the race before finishing stage 2 second, racking up valuable stage points. He now leads the NASCAR Cup Series in most stage points collected in 2025 when he collected 18 in Sunday’s Jacks Link’s 500.

Larson is now at the top with 97 total points, followed closely by teammate William Byron, who has 90 points. Before “Dega,” 2023 Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney led the table with 89 points, yet he remains in third spot.

To top it all off, Larson was the highest-finishing HMS driver, leading a milestone day for the team, as all four HMS Chevys finished inside the top 10 at Talladega for the first time since 2011. The last time this happened was in April 2011, when seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson won the race, with his teammates Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and veteran Mark Martin finishing third, fourth, and eighth, respectively.

However, Sunday’s top 5 finish wasn’t a smooth sail for Larson, who voiced his displeasure in the post-race interview about the limitations of the Next Gen car. 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.”

Although he couldn’t pinpoint the real reason, Larson admitted that passing was extremely difficult. Meanwhile, race winner Austin Cindric took full advantage of his competitors’ issues and beat Ryan Preece to the checkered flag by 0.022 seconds.

Unfortunately for Preece, NASCAR disqualified him after post-race inspection, awarding Larson the second-place finish. With this, Larson jumped to second place in the regular season championship standings.