Darlington Raceway had all the right ingredients for a nostalgic Sunday. The two-time Cup Series champion Terry Labonte had plenty of reason to feel proud. The iconic red-and-white Kellogg’s paint scheme from his 2003 Southern 500 win was back on track. This time, it was wrapped around the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, driven by Kyle Larson.
“The most exciting part is having Kyle Larson drive it. He just does a fantastic job everywhere he goes,” Labonte said earlier in the week. Larson, with one win and five top-10s already in 2025, seemed like the perfect driver to honor Labonte’s legacy. But Darlington doesn’t follow scripts. Just four laps into the Goodyear 400, Larson’s car snapped loose coming out of Turn 2. The Chevy slammed the inside wall, and in seconds, the hopeful tribute turned into a disaster.
But what followed was stranger than the wreck itself. A bizarre misunderstanding left Larson sitting in his car for nearly two hours, confused, idle, and unsure of the rules. What looked like a straightforward DNF turned into one of the most awkward moments of the NASCAR season. Now, almost a week after the incident, the Hendrick Motorsports driver spoke about the incident and the lack of clear rules.
Kyle Larson fell into a misunderstanding at Darlington!
After the Lap 4 crash, Larson’s No. 5 came to rest near the backstretch, heavily damaged and trailing smoke. Larson told his team, “Just spun out. I’m so sorry.” Crew chief Cliff Daniels urged him to stay in the car and wait for a tow to guide him to the garage area, they wanted to put the new Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) to use. From there, the Hendrick Motorsports team began the long process of trying to bring the car back to life.
But as Daniels and the crew worked on repairs, Larson stayed strapped inside. Lap after lap passed. Still, he sat. For nearly two hours, Larson didn’t move. Why? He didn’t know if he was even allowed to get out. Ahead of this week’s action at Bristol Raceway, Larson spoke about the incident. “I was just told on the backstretch to leave the window net up, so I just assumed I had to sit in the car the whole time. I don’t know. Am I allowed to get out?” he said.
It was an honest mistake. Larson feared violating a rule by stepping out too soon, especially with safety protocols often changing. Even after the race, he wasn’t completely sure if getting out in the garage area would’ve been fine. Notably, NASCAR had recently revised its Damaged Vehicle Policy. The updated rule allows teams to spend as much time as needed to fix a car in the garage. On pit road, officials limit them to seven minutes.
Kyle Larson explains what happened at the end of last Sunday’s race that brought out the final caution when he was spun by Bubba Wallace. Plus, the (funny) reason he stayed in the car during the near two-hour repairs: pic.twitter.com/LM8VSqTFel
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) April 12, 2025
Now, we’ve seen drivers misinterpret the new DVP rules. Kyle Busch at the Dayton 500 was the prime example of that. The new rule does allow the teams to take the car to the garage for repairs, but that is a one-time deal. Once the car is back on track, it has to meet the minimum speed set by NASCAR to be deemed race-worthy. “I don’t know, hadn’t seen a replay, but got beat by NASCAR procedures again,” Rowdy said after being parked by NASCAR. So Larson tried to play it safe and didn’t move an inch while his team worked on his race in the garage.
Daniels saw the garage route as a valuable learning opportunity, not just for the car but for the crew. They replaced the front bumper bar and key parts of the nose, but it took almost two hours. By the time Larson rejoined the race, he was 160 laps down. But that didn’t stop the chaos. In the final laps, while trying to stay out of the way, Larson braked hard after seeing Tyler Reddick hit the wall. Bubba Wallace, running behind him, tapped the No. 5, spinning Larson and triggering a caution.
That yellow flag changed the outcome of the race. Denny Hamlin took advantage of the restart and surged to victory over Ryan Blaney. “There’s two people I really love right now: My pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin joked after climbing out of his car. Post-race, Larson owned the awkwardness. “I thought I was staying, so I stayed in. I just didn’t want them waiting on me if the car was ready,” he said. While his comments came off as light-hearted, the frustration was there. With Darlington’s painful memory still fresh, Larson had little time to regroup for a tripleheader in Bristol.
Larson wins the Xfinity pole at Bristol!
Kyle Larson didn’t waste time shaking off his Darlington disappointment. Less than a week later, he rolled into Bristol and reminded everyone why he’s still a top-tier driver. He took the hectic challenge of racing in all three national series. On Friday, he participated in the Truck race and finished second behind Chandler Smith. However, in Saturday’s qualifying for the SciAps 300, Larson put down a blazing lap of 15.194 seconds at 126.287 mph, earning his first Xfinity Series pole of the season.
Driving the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, Larson showed speed and precision on a track where mistakes happen fast. He beat out 18-year-old rising star Connor Zilisch, who settled for second spot. Zilisch’s teammates Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier locked up the second row, making it an all-Chevy front four. “It was smooth, the first lap. So, it’s either going to be good or not good. That’s why I got loose in my second lap. I thought I was too slow on the first one, so I pushed a little more,” Larson told Kim Coon.
It’s his eighth career pole in the Xfinity Series, and it comes at a track where Toyota usually dominates qualifying. But not this time. Ford and Toyota drivers will have to chase a strong Chevy group led by Larson. This is also a bounce-back moment for Larson. After coming oh so close to winning the race driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck, he has a real shot at a win in the Xfinity Series event. More importantly, it’s a clean slate after Darlington’s chaos. Larson will also switch over to his Cup Series car later in the day to qualify and practice, hoping to carry this momentum into Sunday.
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