Larson, Hendrick aim for Richmond rebound after regular-season ‘rough go’

RICHMOND, Va. -- It's been quite the divided season for Kyle Larson. The California native has savored plenty of sprint-car success this year, with six victories in the High Limit Series he co-owns and another barnstorming triumph just two days ago on a qualifying night at the prestigious Knoxville Nationals. Larson's take so far in the NASCAR Cup Series, where he reigns as defending champion for Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 Chevrolet team, is a bare cupboard in the win column. "I guess it's probably a funny balance because yeah, I get to go have that thrill and enjoyment of winning on the sprint car stuff, and I think (the crew) get a sense of that themselves just being a part of me, but yeah, I mean we would all love to have some success on the NASCAR side of things," Larson said Friday post-qualifying at Richmond Raceway. "We've just had a rough go here lately, but yeah, you've got to just take small victories from each weekend." Victories -- either small or in any size, shape or form -- have been more difficult to come by of late for Larson and the rest of the Hendrick lineup, which hopes to turn things around starting with Saturday's Cook Out 400 (7 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chase Elliott has scored the only two Cup Series wins for the four-car team, and the last of those came in early May at Texas Motor Speedway. Elliott ranks the highest in the Cup standings among his teammates in seventh, with Larson 10th, William Byron 11th and Alex Bowman 29th in an injury-shortened season. RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Richmond Of Hendrick's top three, Larson's slump might be the most pronounced, especially when overlaid against his collection of 26 wins in his five previous seasons with the Rick Hendrick-owned team. A crash at Iowa Speedway last weekend handed Larson his fourth finish of 33rd or worse in the last five races, and his winless streak stretches to May 2025 at Kansas -- 47 starts ago. He'll start an uncharacteristic 30th in Saturday's 400-lapper after a season-low qualifying effort, but Elliott was quick to say that Larson's struggles are not uniquely his own. "I mean, I don't think he's alone in a lot of that," Elliott said. "It's not like we've been lighting the world on fire either, you know what I mean? I don't think it's fair to single him out on that. We've all been working really hard to be better." Byron's performance contrasts also stand out. The two-time Daytona 500 winner was leading the Cup Series standings at this time last year, with seven stage wins in the bank compared to his three this season. His average starting spot has also tapered off, from the 9.9 that tied for the series' best last season to the 15.9 clip that he holds in 2026. The lack of wins, Byron says, ranks as the biggest factor in the decline from year to year. This time last season, Byron had two wins already, and he'd add a third for the 2025 campaign at Martinsville in the fall. The 10-race Chase looms next month, however, and he views it as a crossroads opportunity. "Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that the Chase is going to be kind of the master reset, even though there is still an advantage to the guys that have had a good regular season, I think there still is a master reset there," Byron says. "The difference in first and 10th (in the Chase) is not as big as what it is now, so I think there's a chance that you can close that gap pretty quickly with a win, and then it's kind of anyone's game." As reflected in the Cup Series standings, the regular season so far has been dominated by five Toyota teams -- all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers and the 23XI entry of Tyler Reddick -- and the flourishing Ford driven by Team Penske's Ryan Blaney. Hendrick's foursome might be unaccustomed to being shut out of that top six, but Larson says fortunes can change. The sport's history has shown it, and Hendrick has been known for making things click. "I mean, just really to just get some solid runs in again, get that momentum built back up in these next few," Larson says when asked what might give him more assurance to close out the season. "I think we all are not naive enough to think that we could be as good or better than Toyotas in the next three weeks, but we weren't as good as them last year, and we won the championship and would have won it in this format. So we could still do it. Just got to get a little bit better grip and speed, and I think our execution is there. So yeah, I might not seem confident; none of us might seem confident as far as winning a championship, but there is still that confidence in there because you race for Hendrick Motorsports, and you know at any point we can turn it around. So just got to be ready for whenever that day comes."