Kyle Larson had one of the busiest years of any American athlete. The Hendrick Motorsports star not only ran the entire 38-race weekend Nascar Cup Series schedule, but he also competed in the Indianapolis 500, along with a plethora of dirt races.
But with Larson’s main job – driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – he struggled after an incredibly hot start to the 2025 campaign. He ended the year with a 24-race winless drought, his longest since joining HMS in 2021. Nonetheless, it was Larson who came out on top to capture the 2025 Nascar Cup Series championship in dramatic fashion.
“My watch says I took a nap,” an audibly exhausted Larson said on Monday morning after winning his second Cup Series title. “It’s definitely a big deal, and the fashion we were able to become champions in was pretty shocking. The shock just adds even more excitement. It was an unreal turn of events yesterday.”
Larson was having a solid, but not spectacular run in Sunday’s Nascar Cup Series Championship Race, ranking third of the Championship 4 drivers for much of the afternoon. He blew a tire with just over 100 laps remaining, and it appeared doom and gloom. But his No. 5 team – in championship fashion – redeemed themselves. Led by crew chief Cliff Daniels, who was handpicked in 2020 to be Jimmie Johnson’s final HMS crew chief, the No. 5 team persevered.
With just three laps remaining, teammate and Championship 4 contender William Byron blew a tire. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who led a race-high 208 laps, pitted for four tires, while Daniels attempted NASCAR’s version of a Hail Mary, going with two right side Goodyears. Daniels made the right call, as Larson soared past older tires on the high line and Hamlin was stuck in traffic on the inside line. Larson finished third with Hamlin three spots behind in sixth, enough to win the 2025 Bill France Cup.
“We kept ourselves in the picture and in the hunt,” Larson said.
Larson kicked off the year as one of the most dominant drivers in Nascar. He picked up victories at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway (in dominant fashion, leading 411 of 500 laps), along with another unstoppable run at Kansas Speedway by leading 221 laps, the most ever in a 400-mile race at a venue measuring 1.5 miles in length. But that was it.
He finished 24th in the Indianapolis 500 with Arrow McLaren SP due to a wreck and had two other notable wrecks during the month of May at Indy. Nothing seemed to be the same ever since. The No. 5 team had some strong runs, including a second-place finish in the Brickyard 400. But that top-tier speed was lacking, with seven top-five finishes in the final 24 races.
“We were able to win a few races early on, but we went through our struggles with car performance and speed, bringing in a new pit crew and some other new mechanics, and all of that,” Larson said. “We stayed with it and stayed working hard. Even to start the playoffs, we weren’t where we wanted to be.”
But after all of Hendrick Motorsports struggled at Darlington Raceway to begin the playoffs, Larson slowly got his pace back. At Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he led 129 laps before finishing second to Hamlin, and he earned his way to the Championship 4 on points.
“We peaked at the right time and did a good job as a team executing,” Larson said. “I’m just proud of everybody.”
Larson is only the 18th driver in Nascar history to win multiple Cup Series championships, putting him in an elite category. He joins Joey Logano and Kyle Busch as the only active Cup drivers to have multiple titles.
While reflecting on the journey of the 2025 season, Larson believes he succeeded because of Daniels’ leadership.
“He is a great leader and a great motivator,” Larson said of his crew chief. “He always kept his belief, and that allowed everybody on the team to believe that we could do great things. The same went in [Sunday’s] race. We had challenging moments, and he kept encouraging us to keep fighting. We’re not dead. He was right. Even when I thought we were close to being dead, he kept us motivated enough.
Since Hendrick paired Larson with Daniels in 2021, they have become one of the most dominant duos in Nascar. Together, they have 25 wins and three Championship 4 appearances in five seasons.
“I’m fortunate to have him in my corner and leading my team,” Larson said. “I know and recognize I wouldn’t have any of the success I have without him. I hope we can go on a run and win more championships, building into this legacy that we have with this [No.] 5 team.”
Larson is certainly thinking about his legacy, but said he is not “worrying” about it. His main focus is winning more races and championships.
“I don’t think any of us foresaw us getting a second championship in the fashion that we did today. That probably makes it seem even different,” Larson said. “Nonetheless, we’re on the list two times. That’s something to be proud of.
“As far as legacy, I really don’t put a whole lot of thought into that yet. Like I’ve mentioned many times before, I think it’s really hard to think about that sort of thing right now as you’re still competing and plan to compete for quite a while.
“We’re still going to try and go out there and win more races. The legacy will kind of take care of itself as we approach that.”
Larson joined HMS in 2021 after beginning his career with Chip Ganassi Racing. He won six races in six years with Ganassi, but never showed championship-winning speed. It was a matter of when, not if, a larger team would sign him.
But after he was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic for saying a racial slur during a live iRacing stream, Ganassi fired him the next day. Larson went through sensitivity training and a rigorous reinstatement program before being reinstated that October for the 2021 season. With Johnson retiring from full-time competition, Hendrick Motorsports soon signed Larson to take over the No. 5 car, with HendrickCars.com as the sponsor. In their first year together, Larson won an astonishing 10 races and the All-Star Race en route to his first Cup title.
At just 33 years old, he has 32 Cup Series wins, 30th on Nascar’s all-time wins list. With two titles, he’s two shy of HMS Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon, who won four Cup Series championships in the No. 24 car.
“I’d love to get where Jeff Gordon is at some day,” Larson said. “Maybe, I can surpass him. But at the same time, I recognize how tough this series is and I know that will be extremely difficult. We’re halfway there, so maybe we can catch him some day.”
Gordon, who greeted Larson on the finish line after the race, was in complete and utter shock, Larson joked. They were “both in disbelief.”
The title is Hendrick Motorsports’ 15th championship, and Larson is proud to have brought No. 15 home to Mr. H.
“It feels amazing, and hopefully we can keep hanging banners at the shop,” Larson said.
It’s likely that Larson won the last Cup Series championship under the current format. Nascar is having ongoing discussions about changing the format to eliminate the one-race, four-driver championship battle. However, that announcement will come during the offseason. The 2026 season finale will return to Homestead-Miami Speedway, one of Larson’s best race tracks.
