Kyle Larson looking to defend 2025 championship, get back to victory lane

There is a thought that ought to terrify the NASCAR Cup Collection discipline going into 2026: Regardless of a constant season and the truth that he discovered a option to win his second NASCAR Cup Collection championship in 2025, Kyle Larson was not driving as his highest stage. 

The 2-time Cup Collection champion will carry a 24-race winless drought into the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. 

There’s additionally a bizarre feeling concerning Larson’s second championship, although it isn’t one which Larson had any management over. Whereas he did rating essentially the most factors of any driver over the course of the 2025 season with the playoff format disregarded, it was solely due to a late-race warning and a gutsy pit name from crew chief Cliff Daniels that snatched the championship out of Denny Hamlin’s palms and gave it to Hamlin. 

It will not be truthful to Larson, who merely performed the playing cards he was dealt in regard to NASCAR’s playoff format, however there’ll at all times be a stigma surrounding his second title. 

How Kyle Larson can return to dominance

The one option to rid himself and the No. 5 crew of that stigma? Get again to their successful methods in 2026. 

It is not as if Larson was unhealthy in 2025. However his three-win whole was his lowest since 2022, a yr the place he was eradicated within the second spherical of the NASCAR playoffs. Then again, his 22 top-10 finishes had been his most in that class since his 2021 title season, the place he had 26. 

The important thing for Larson in 2026? Holding that very same stage of consistency whereas additionally translating constantly working up entrance to extra wins. 

Three wins is way, distant from being a nasty season, however for a driver the caliber of Larson, it isn’t the height of the mountaintop, both. 

That was clear over the summer season stretch of 2025, the place after his Kansas win and subsequent poor exhibiting in the course of the Indy 500-Coke 600 “Double,” Larson and the No. 5 struggled to seek out pace. Over the ultimate 14 races of the common season, Larson had solely three top-five finishes and 7 top-10s. He additionally led solely 68 laps throughout that span. 

Larson did not win in the course of the playoffs, however he did notch six top-seven finishes over the past seven races, with the wild card of Talladega being the one outlier. 

As Larson appears to be like to get again to victory lane and the championship stage in 2026, the storage ought to shudder at what a full-strength No. 5 crew appears to be like like as Larson tries to defend his title.