Kyle Larson’s team needed directions at Talladega Superspeedway to find the NASCAR driver after his first victory at the mammoth 2.66-mile oval.
“It’s hard to believe,” crew chief Cliff Daniels said after Larson gained 10 spots on Sunday's final lap for his first victory in 24 starts at the treacherous track in Alabama. “I had to ask where victory lane was. I’ve never seen the place; didn’t even know where it was.”
The Chase points leader won’t need
help finding his way if Larson celebrates a third Cup Series championship during the next two weeks.
Larson and Hendrick Motorsports know their way around the season’s final two tracks as well as anywhere on the NASCAR schedule.
With a 73-point lead over Denny Hamlin, a strong performance Sunday at Martinsville Speedway could make Larson the first driver in Chase history to clinch the title before the season finale.
Hendrick is NASCAR’s winningest team at Martinsville with 31 victories (including wins in seven of the past 12 races). Larson has eight consecutive top 10s (including a 2023 win) at the 0.526-mile oval.
He is even better at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the Cup season ends Nov. 8. Larson has two wins at the 1.5-mile track, is tied for second in top fives (six) and ranks fourth in average finish.
Martinsville and Homestead are stronger fits for Larson’s aggressive style than the unpredictable draft of Talladega, which ranked among his worst tracks in Cup and seemed a major title roadblock.
A disastrous 34th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway left Larson clinging to a five-point lead, and five former Talladega winners were within striking distance.
It’s no wonder he was much looser after surviving the caution-plagued stress of 500 miles at Talladega, where the nine drivers behind him in the Chase standings were involved in incidents Sunday.
“I feel good,” Larson said. “Never in a million years would I have imagined leaving here plus-73. That makes the win feel even way cooler.”
After finishing eighth at Talladega, Hamlin conceded that Larson is destined for the title if he avoids misfortune in the next two races.
Hamlin still should be able to keep the pressure on at Martinsville. The Joe Gibbs Racing star ranks first among active drivers at the Virginia short track in wins, laps led and points per race, and he led a race-high 292 laps for a runner-up finish there on March 29.
Teammate Christopher Bell, ranked third in the Chase 74 points behind Larson, won at Martinsville four years ago and has four top 10s in the past six races there.
The competition is concerning to Daniels, who plans to keep the No. 5 Chevrolet on offense at Martinsville instead of protecting the Chase lead.
“The points can swing a lot,” said Daniels, who led Larson to championships in 2021 and 2025. “There’s always been this question of what is a comfortable points gap. The Chase so far has shown some volatility. You just never know what’s going to lie ahead.”
Though Larson can wrap up the title by scoring 59 points at Martinsville (he amassed 71 of a maximum 76 at Talladega), he and his team are downplaying their chances by noting that alternate tire strategies and the timing of cautions can negate a fast car.
“It’s certainly not over by any means,” said Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, whose nine wins at Martinsville tie him for the team lead with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson. “You’ve got to execute, and there’s so much on the line. So many different strategies can play out now. I know Hendrick runs good at Martinsville, but that’s just not a guarantee.”
Since joining Hendrick in 2021, Larson has finished outside the top 10 only twice at Martinsville. He is mindful it’s still easy for things to go wrong at the smallest track on the Cup circuit.
“If there’s a stackup on the first lap, I could cave in the radiator and be done,” Larson said. “There’s still a lot of racing left in the Chase. I’m not getting ahead of myself at all.”
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