Joey Logano won the 2024 Cup Series Championship. His third overall.
Kyle Larson didn’t even go to the season finale in Phoenix with a chance to win his second.
But Larson seems to suggest he’s just as happy to have directed The great NASCAR series in victories – six, while no one else has won more than four. Current playoff format rewards success all seasonbut as the shadows of the playoffs lengthen, it also punishes any mistake, even the slightest, and Larson slipped when he finished 11th and 13th in the first two races of the round of 16 last fall.
“If anything, I just think the format somehow devalues a championship,” Larson said in a statement. Hendrick Motorsports Season Preview for 2025.
“I think obviously you’d like to win the most races and win the championship and all that, but I think winning six races, that’s extremely difficult to do, and we’ve played a part in a lot of other things than that .”
Kyle Larson led NASCAR in wins twice
It was the second time in Larson’s NASCAR career that he led the Cup Series in wins. The other time in 2021, half of his series-high 10 wins came during the playoffs — including three in a row and one victory in the championship race.
Failure to win another Cup Series championship did not dampen his feelings for the second season in which he logged the most visits to Victory Lane.
“I think we had a great year,” Larson said of 2024. “You led the series in a lot of categories, almost every category, so yeah, it was a little disappointing to not have the chance to run for a championship in Phoenix, but at the same time, I understand the format.
“I really wasn’t that upset during Phoenix week because I knew that no matter the result, we were going to finish the season with the most wins. And for me, these days, that’s as important as winning a championship.”
Daytona 500 is next; Can Kyle Larson finally make it happen?
NASCAR cars and drivers return to the track the first weekend in February, when the Cook Out Clash features many modern fans at historic Bowman Gray Stadium.
Two weeks later, the regular season begins as usual, with the Daytona 500.
Ironically, one of NASCAR’s biggest modern stars has never won his sport’s biggest race. Larson is 0 for 11 at the Daytona 500 since his first full-time season in 2014. Add in his career shutout at the summer Daytona race, he is 0 for 21 at the World Center of Racing.
He’s not completely winless at Daytona, however. During the Whelen All American Series’ short visit to Daytona, he won a race in 2013 on the short track set up at Turn 2 on the backstretch. Two years later, he was part of Chip Ganassi’s overall victory Rolex24.
Three years later, Larson won a 2018 Xfinity Series race at Daytona.
This article originally appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal: The Daytona 500 is coming up for NASCAR. Kyle Larson says wins are bigger than the Cup
