Entering his 11th season as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series competitor and fifth in a row driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) Chevrolet entry, Kyle Larson prepares to officially commence a new season of competition pursuing the lone prestigious event missing from his race-winning resume: the Daytona 500. With this year’s 67th running of the Great American Race potentially up to grabs in his favor, Larson will pursue the feat with a milestone start for the event. In starting this Sunday’s season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, he will make his 12th career start in the 500.
A native of Elk Grove, California, Larson’s first Daytona 500 career start occurred in 2014, the year in which he campaigned in his first full-time Cup stint in the No. 42 Chevrolet entry for Chip Ganassi Racing. Starting in 16th place, he ended up in 38th place after a tap from Austin Dillon sent the former sideways and eliminated in a multi-car wreck with 39 laps remaining. Larson would then finish in 34th place during his second season-opening event in 2015 after he was involved in another multi-car wreck, with the latest one occurring on the final lap.
In 2016, Larson nabbed his first top-10 result during the 58th Daytona 500 event after he finished in seventh place. The following season, he led 16 laps and was leading on the final lap when he ran out of fuel entering the backstretch amid a late fuel-mileage battle. Instead of a potential trip to Victory Lane, he drifted back to 12th place.
Despite finishing 19th during the 60th Daytona 500 event in 2018, Larson rallied by notching three consecutive top-10 results over his next three starts from 2019 to 2021. During his latest 10th-place finish in 2021, the Californian was driving the No. 5 HMS Chevrolet after he spent the 2020 season sidelined due to using a racial slur during an iRacing event, which also resulted from him being released from Chip Ganassi Racing.
After notching his first Cup Series championship and 10 race victories in 2021, Larson extended the momentum in the early stages of the 2022 season by winning the pole position for the 64th Daytona 500, which marked his first time leading the field to start a Great American Race from the top-starting spot. During the main event, he led a single lap and ended up in 32nd place after he triggered a multi-car wreck with 10 laps remaining. The following season, he claimed a front row starting spot for the 65th Daytona 500 and started alongside teammate/pole-sitter Alex Bowman. Despite contending for the victory amid two overtime shootouts, Larson ended up in 18th place after he got turned head-on into the Turn 1 outside wall by Travis Pastrana and was unable to limp his wrecked race car back to the finish line amid a nine-car pileup. Since then, he finished 11th during his latest 500 start in 2024.
Through 11 previous starts in the Daytona 500, Larson has recorded one pole, four top-10 results, 31 laps led and an average-finishing result of 18.0. A victory by Larson in 2025 would make him the 44th competitor overall to win the Great American Race and the first California native to do so since Kevin Harvick made the last achievement in 2007. In addition, Larson would rack up Chevrolet’s 27th victory of the event, make HMS the winningest team in the history of the Daytona 500 with 10 victories and notch the first 500 victory for HMS’ No. 5 entry since Geoff Bodine made the lone accomplishment in 1986. As an added bonus, Larson would complete his Grand Slam of NASCAR’s crown-jewel events by adding a Daytona 500 victory alongside his previous prestigious victories that include the Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 and Brickyard 400.
This week, Larson, who finished in sixth place in the 2024 driver’s standings, will participate in a single-car qualifying session on Wednesday, February 12, and in one of two Duel events on Thursday, February 13, to determine his starting lineup for this year’s Daytona 500. The qualifying session on Wednesday will begin airing at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1 while the Duels will begin airing at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
The 2025 Daytona 500 is scheduled to occur this upcoming Sunday, February 16, with a starting broadcast time of 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
