It takes time for a legend’s value to sink in. Kyle Larson is undoubtedly a motorsports legend, having been compared with Max Verstappen in a worldly status. But many people still squint their eyebrows at Rick Hendrick’s golden child. That is because of the sheer dominance he displays in NASCAR or elsewhere – ranging from a Double attempt to 30 Cup Series wins, Larson’s excellence knows no end.
That is why when Kyle Larson embarked on a new mission this past weekend, most NASCAR fans were not interested. In fact, after the driver stumbled in the Xfinity Series race at Homestead despite leading for 132 laps, the reactions were positive. A NASCAR insider chides the community for this.
Among the many laurels that Rick Hendrick’s star has picked up, one case in point came last year. During the 2024 Bristol night race, Kyle Larson was an indomitable force. He led a record-setting 462 laps, the most-ever laps led in a race by a Hendrick Motorsports car. As usual, fans were not happy with Larson’s dominance, as they felt it was monotonous without anybody passing. Larson had sharpy retorted back at a few fans on social media back then. Now again as the HMS star embarked on replicating Kyle Busch’s legacy – Busch was the only driver to sweep up a weekend in Bristol twice (2010, 2017) – fans were bored.
NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck broached this topic on ‘The Teardown’ podcast. He lauded Kyle Larson’s superior ability to maneuver races despite the Next-Hen car’s enhanced parity. During the Straight Talk Wireless 400, Larson emerged as a fierce contender and beat polesitter Alex Bowman to clinch a 1.205-second win. Gluck said: a 1.205-second win. “I know people are tired of hearing, ‘Larson’s such a great driver.’ You saw his ability…his ability to run the wall took over. And he won that race himself, he put it on his back. Sometimes, I think it’s good for everybody to see that…Drivers can make a difference even though the cars are so equal.”
REPOST to congratulate Kyle Larson!
The No. 5 car passes Alex Bowman late for the win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/D6JojoRWVd
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) March 23, 2025
What is more, people liked the fact that Kyle Larson slipped and fell in Xfinity. Due to Sam Mayer’s aggression with eight laps to go, Larson lost his momentum and finished 4th. Gluck continued: “Yesterday…some people on social media were cheering the end of the Xfinity race that he lost. They’re like, ‘Thank goodness we don’t have to hear about this three-race weekend thing.’ They’re tired of hearing about Larson.”
While people were tired of hearing about Larson, Yung Money was disappointed after the Xfinity race. “I feel like every time I go there [to Homestead] you leave disappointed because you feel like you have the best car or truck, and things don’t work out. Whether it’s mistakes on my end or ill-timed cautions combined with a hiccup on pit road, or whatever late in the race, and you end up losing.”
He made up for that in the Cup race thought, finishing masterfully while leading 18 laps of the race. He drove the high line, even riding the wall at some points, and when that paid off, Larson was ecstatic. “It was far from perfect. I gave up a spot and a half, almost two spots there, by getting in the wall too many times. I just had to keep plugging away at what I knew and what was good for me. Just a lot of gritty, hard work there today. One of the coolest wins, I think, in my Cup career just because of all the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels good.”
Regardless of the negativity, Kyle Larson’s fight was impressive. Especially since he broke the ‘B’ trend.
Larson toppled the next racer in line
Ever since the start of the 2025 Cup Series season, people have noticed a pattern. William Byron started it by winning the Daytona race – and then Christopher Bell and Josh Berry continued it. It was the ‘B’ trend of drivers with their last name starting with B. So when Alex Bowman won the pole for the Homestead-Miami race, everybody assumed he would be next in line. The No. 48 HMS driver exhibited all the signs of doing so as well. After starting first in the 37-car field, Bowman led for 43 laps. However, he made a mistake with 6 laps to go – he put his No. 48 in the outside retaining wall. That scrape allowed Kyle Larson the window of opportunity.
The No. 5 driver then passed Alex Bowman and jetted off to victory. That led to a feeling of disappointment for Rick Hendrick’s other star. “I guess I choked that one away, for sure. Just kind of burned my stuff up. Saw (Larson) coming, so I moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit (the wall) with the right front and just bent something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel, and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad. So, man, I hate that for this group. they deserve better than that. Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were OK all day. That last run was probably the best we were but hats off to (this team.”
So Kyle Larson excelled as he usually does despite the negative reactions from the community. Let us see what the HMS star will have in store for us next.
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