SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Kyle Larson is the only driver to win the Brickyard 400 in the Next Gen car.
His hope is to keep it that way.
MORE: Indianapolis schedule | Cup standings
Larson wheeled his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the crown-jewel victory in the 2024 edition of the event at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, carving through the field with more fuel than most. But that was last year. A new task awaits on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Just happy to be back,” Larson said Friday before practice. “Hopefully, our car is good again. I believe it should be fast, if not better than it was last year. So hopefully have a good practice, good qualifying tomorrow and execute your race on Sunday.”
Despite his California roots, Larson is linked to Indy more than any other active NASCAR Cup Series driver, thanks in large part to his 2024 and 2025 attempts of the Memorial Day Double — competing in the storied Indianapolis 500 as well as the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day.
Neither attempt went to plan. Year 1 was marred by weather delays and a speeding penalty in the Indianapolis 500 that sank his finish, with the weather in both Indy and Charlotte ruining his chances of getting behind the wheel of his Cup car. This year’s try was arguably more heartbreaking. Time allotted him to compete in both events, but crashes in both races after the intense logistical planning and preparation ultimately soured the experience.
Returning to the Racing Capital of the World gives Larson an opportunity to put those disappointments behind him for good.
“It’s great to be back here in Indy and back in the stock car,” Larson said. “Hopefully, I’ll do a much better job than I did in May. It’s a privilege to get to run here and race this facility and would love nothing more than to have a good run, and hopefully put the bow on the Double stuff with another Brickyard 400 win.”
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Larson enters Indianapolis with some much-needed momentum. Though he sits third in points heading into the 160-lap race, Larson had finished 13th or worse in five of the eight races since winning at Kansas Speedway in May, including a 37th-place DNF in the Coke 600. His fortunes changed for the better last weekend, however, with a fourth-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway.
“I knew that Dover would be a great opportunity for us to have a day like that,” Larson said, “where we could just be clean all race long and have speed and have things work out. But yeah, I mean, it got a little sketchy there when Bell spun. I thought I was going to get collected in that and be like, ‘Oh yeah, just continuing on our bad finishes here.’ But that was good. Hopefully that’s the beginning of us turning it around for us, but we’ll see.”
His track record at Indianapolis is stout: In seven starts on the Indy oval, Larson has one win, two top fives and four top 10s. Crew chief Cliff Daniels attributes that success to Larson’s persistence behind the scenes.
“He’s such a student of the game, and he has such versatility in so many different types of cars,” Daniels told NASCAR.com Friday. “He’s so adaptable. There are certainly some techniques that are different in clean air, fast pace here, versus being in traffic and the approach you have to take there. He’s studied that. He’s good at kind of changing himself to adapt to the moment. And he does that everywhere, really, but certainly at this place, he catches on pretty quick. So it’s a lot of fun to be here.”