Kyle Larson: Hendrick Motorsports had 'no shot' at 2025 title

Kyle Larson and Hendrick Motorsports head for Gateway this weekend believing their performance will be crucial in assessing their 2025 NASCAR title hopes.

The 2021 Cup Series champion had a disappointing start to playoff season last weekend, when he finished 19th behind Chase Briscoe at Darlington.

That was not the start the Elk Grove, California native wanted for his postseason campaign, but he believes this Sunday in Illinois will be an even better barometer of his prospects for title glory.

Larson’s rationale is that Gateway will tell Hendrick exactly where they are when it comes to their hopes for this year’s Championship race at Phoenix on November 2. As close as it gets to a dress rehearsal.

There is trepidation in the Hendrick ranks, too, as they gear up for a huge weekend - Larson believes the team’s recent showings in Phoenix were just not good enough to challenge the best. Notably, big rivals Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing.

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Gateway a barometer for Phoenix

Larson revealed that based on their recent performances at Phoenix, Hendrick Motorsports knew they had 'no shot' at winning this year's title, and so have since gone about re-working their short track package.

Larson told FOX Sports: "We’ve been really bad at Gateway but a little bit better at Phoenix.

"If we can be good at Gateway in the same ballpark as [Penske and Gibbs], that would give us some confidence going to Phoenix.

"Based off how we ran at Phoenix at the end of last year, and then in the spring this year, we knew we had no shot to win the championship with the setup that we had. We had to go to work, and we've still been continuing to work on it."

Larson remains in a comfortable position in the playoff standings despite his ‘average’ night in Darlington - he is currently third and 26 points above the cutline. The driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet also believes there were multiple reasons for the subpar showing.

Gateway test inspired short-track change

Looking for a new direction to head in with their short-track package and setup, Larson revealed that a test at Gateway earlier this year led the team down a path they hope will be more fruitful.

"We had a great test at Gateway earlier this year, and that's kind of led us down a different path with our short-track package here lately, and it seems to be better," he explained.

"I would say we're still not anywhere close to Penske, and we've gotten closer to Gibbs, but we've gotten better, which is a plus.

"We still have a few more short tracks to go to kind of fine-tune our package and hopefully hit where we need to at Phoenix."

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