Kyle Larson’s disappointing record on NASCAR superspeedways comes to light after Talladega finish

Kyle Larson, widely regarded as one of the top talents in the current NASCAR Cup Series lineup, has struggled to find consistent success on superspeedways. Despite a strong top-five finish at Talladega, the California native’s overall performance on these high-speed tracks hasn’t matched his usual dominance

Kyle Larson pilots the #5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, competing full-time in the Cup Series. In 12 years of his career, Larson has secured 46 race wins across all of NASCAR's top divisions. Moreover, the #5 driver swept the 2021 campaign by securing the regular season championship and getting his hands on his first Cup Series title.

While Larson gathered stage points in both stages by finishing in P4 and P9 respectively, his record in superspeedway events continues to disappoint. Since the #5 driver joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, his average finish at Talladega Superspeedway has been a disappointing 22.8. Moreover, his finish in the Yellawood 500 marked only the second time Kyle Larson made it into the top five in his entire career on a superspeedway.

Here's a post on X(formerly Twitter) captioned(via @TreyRyan99):

"Kyle Larson’s 4th place finish at Talladega marked only the 2nd top 5 finish on a superspeedway in his ENTIRE career His only other top 5 was at Talladega in the Spring of 2022"

Of 41 race starts on Superspeedways since 2014, Larson has only managed to secure 9 top-ten finishes, raising concern for the driver's performances on such tracks. His best finish at Daytona was in 2016, where he secured a P6 finish.

Following a P4 finish in the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Larson is P4 in the driver standings, sandwiched between Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell(P3), and Denny Hamlin(P5).

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“We executed really well”: Kyle Larson satisfied with rare top 5 finish at Talladega

Kyle Larson's top-five finish at Talladega left him feeling content after the end of the race. The HMS ace is currently in a tight playoff battle to secure his second Cup Series championship title.

Larson faced a delay when he entered pit road on lap 64, making him lose out on several track positions. The delay was caused by a late refuel from the #5 team's pit crew. However, cutting his losses, the #5 driver navigated his way back to the top of the field. Following an overtime restart after the massive multi-car wreck, Larson maintained his position in P4 and crossed the finish line.

As the race ended, Kyle Larson expressed his views on the top-five finish at Talladega, despite facing a few issues. In conversation with Peter Stratta, he said(via X):

"Eventually like, it's got to work out and today was just that day. Especially with that wreck on the backstretch that easily in the past would be us getting in the middle of that somehow. But we got through it and yeah, we had a great car. We executed really well."

"It was a struggle but we overcame from restarting the back of the first stage and had to shot the win. I was really happy about that. And then the second stage as well, I thought we did a good job to give ourselves a shot to get the points. And then there at the end too, I thought we did a good job." Larson added

Kyle Larson is currently 52 points ahead of the Round of 8 cut-off line. While that lead seems comfortable, the Round of 12 finale at Charlotte will be the deciding factor for drivers intending to remain in the playoffs.