NASCAR power rankings: Who is Hendrick’s top driver?
By Asher Fair
Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR rankings – No. 2: Kyle Larson
Kyle Larson’s start to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season is best summed up by “what could’ve been”.
He was in the running for the Daytona 500 win before being taken out in a last lap crash, he never had the chance to defend his 2022 win at Auto Club Speedway thanks to electrical issues, and late cautions brought others back into the mix at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.
Despite the fact Larson has led 270 laps this year, more than any other driver, he is still winless and was in a fifth place tie in the point standings before the penalty, lowest among the three Hendrick Motorsports drivers currently competing full-time.
Many viewed Larson as having “struggled” amid the introduction of the Next Gen car last year, but that is because expectations were so high after his 10-win championship-winning season in 2021, the first of that nature for any driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007.
Plus, he is often viewed as a driver who can get behind the wheel of anything and win, so the fact that he didn’t put up back-to-back 10-win seasons in his first two years with Rick Hendrick’s team was seen as crazy. He still won three races, good for second on the team and tied for third place in the series.
But it just seems as though he is trying to regain that winning mojo that nobody else could touch in 2021. These last two races have given off somewhat of a 2018/2019 vibe. Entering 2021, he had just one win since 2017.
The number of times Larson should have won races during those two seasons — but didn’t — was astounding, and it oftentimes came down to late race restarts, as these two recent races did.