Despite two wrecks, Kyle Larson wins at Darlington Raceway after all

A single-car wreck on lap four and a race-altering mistake with four laps to go, while running 167 laps off the lead lap, turned the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway into Kyle Larson's worst race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and arguably the worst overall race weekend since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021.

But the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet still managed to come away from the "Lady in Black" as the winner – of the Throwback Weekend paint scheme fan vote, that is.

The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was declared the winner of the Throwback Paint Scheme Fan Vote. The car was themed after the Kellogg's Frosted Flakes-sponsored car that Terry Labonte drove to his final Cup Series victory at the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval back in 2023.

Kyle Larson 'wins' at Darlington

It marks back-to-back Throwback Weekend "wins" for Larson, whose 2024 scheme was a nod to Labonte's regular yellow Kellogg's car. In 2023, Chase Elliott's Llumar-sponsored throwback to his father Bill Elliott won the vote, and in 2022, he won with a NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored throwback to Jimmy Means.

It wasn't the only throwback weekend win for Hendrick Motorsports. Though Brennan Poole competes for Alpha Prime Racing, he was racing a throwback scheme to a Jeff Gordon Looney Tunes car from 2001, and that car won the Xfinity Series vote.

There has been an ongoing debate about the future of Throwback Weekend, and whether or not it is really necessary, but at the end of the day, there is really no harm in participating. Nobody is required to participate, so it's not like NASCAR teams and drivers are being penalized for not taking part.

All things considered, there is really no need to make any changes, even amid suggestions that it has "run its course". The teams that want to be a part of it can be a part of it, and the teams that don't, don't.