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NASCAR driver Kyle Larson finished on the podium at the Shriners Children's 500 at the Phoenix Raceway. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver, who started the race in P17 and finished in P3, was in contention for the win in the final laps. Larson shared his verdict on the weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
Kyle Larson took to the social media platform X and uploaded pictures from the Shriners Children's 500. The 32-year-old shared four photos, which included three pictures of the American and a picture of the No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. The caption pointed at a good weekend for Hendrick Motorsports as it read:
“Great team day overall. Onto Vegas”
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All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished the race inside the Top 10, with Kyle Larson being the highest-placed finisher. William Byron, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott ended the race in P6, P7 and P10, respectively. Hendrick Motorsports’ account uploaded a tweet about the same, which read:
“Strong finish...just a warm up for the fall”
The ‘warmup for the fall’ refers to the championship-deciding race of the season, which takes place at the end of the Phoenix Raceway. Christopher Bell won the Shriners Children's 500 to continue his winning streak, taking it up to three. His teammate, Denny Hamlin, finished P2.
Larson was in with a chance for a win and ran side by side with Denny Hamlin onto the penultimate lap. Speaking about the same and why he chose to get behind the JGR driver in the slipstream, the HMS driver explained (via Speedway Digest):
“I was hoping to help Denny (Hamlin) down the back and then they would get racing like they did, and then maybe they would make a bigger mistake in front of us and we could sneak by. It almost happened, but we just came up a little bit short.”
Kyle Larson chose not to get involved in the fight for P1 between the JGR teammates and explained his reason for the same after the race.
“I felt like that was my only hope”: Kyle Larson on his only hope of winning the Shriners Children's 500
The green flag dropped after the caution at the end of the race with only two laps remaining. Kyle Larson took his place behind the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and drafted them throughout the penultimate lap. The No. 5 HMS driver then took the low line on the final lap instead of following the JHR drivers through the high line.
Larson detailed how the two JGR drivers fighting and getting into each other's way was his only hope for a win as he said (via FOX:NASCAR on X):
“I felt like that was my only hope. Yeah, I felt like I made the correct decisions there… I thought being patient to try and keep them side by side down the back was good. I could have shot to the bottom, but I felt like I would have wrecked everybody there. Yeah, just kind of gave ourselves a shot for them to maybe get into each other and squeak by.”
The P3 at Phoenix marks Larson's second finish on the podium in 2025, as he also finished P3 at the Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta.
