{"id":560040,"date":"2026-03-25T16:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560040\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:04:08","slug":"nascar-insider-questions-kyle-larson-as-confidence-in-2026-format-change-narrative-slips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560040\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR insider questions Kyle Larson as confidence in 2026 format change narrative slips"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few drivers are as equipped to run at the front of the pack as Kyle Larson. But Larson has had a few key missteps that have put him behind the 8-ball early in the season in the new championship format in the NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series.<\/p>\n

Larson has recorded a pair of 32nd-place finishes this year in six races, both due to mistakes in the car. It has led insiders to wonder if the new playoff format might actually be detrimental to Larson\u2019s style of racing: high risk, high reward.<\/p>\n

In the previous championship format, winning races was the ticket. Win a race and you were locked into the championship race.<\/p>\n

Now, drivers compete across the first 26 races to be among the top 16 drivers on points. Then they duke it out across the final 10 races for supremacy. Kyle Larson currently sits in 10th in the points standings after dropping three places after Darlington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a big storyline coming into this year of, \u2018Will Larson have to race any differently with this point system?’\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Jeff Gluck said on The Teardown<\/a> podcast. \u201cAnd he kept saying, \u2018No, no, no.\u2019 And there was a lot of evidence for that, right? Because last season he would have won the championship overall. He had the most overall points, say, if it was a 36-race thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, so far this year, things haven\u2019t quite worked out that way for Kyle Larson. He trails leader Tyler Reddick by 149 points, nearly double the 176 he has accumulated so far.<\/p>\n

Gluck noted the mistakes are glaring. They\u2019ve been costly.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then you see these mistakes, the moment where he comes across SVG\u2019s nose,\u201d Gluck said. \u201cPits from four lanes down or whatever, right? And you\u2019re just like, \u2018Man, what was that?\u2019 Then (at Darlington), running alone, 10 laps to go, just hits the wall. I mean, giving up points, it really is going to matter. These moments really come back to bite you in this kind of system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mistake with Shane van Gisbergen at Atlanta was a big one. Larson was running in third as the end of Stage 2 approached. He misjudged a block and hit the outside wall, ending his day. Not only did he finish in 32nd, but he also missed the easy stage points.<\/p>\n

Fellow insider for The Athletic, Jordan Bianchi, also weighed in on the topic. He spoke to crew chief Cliff Daniels and provided some more insight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a conversation that was background, off the record,\u201d Bianchi said. \u201cI\u2019ll just say Cliff is like this is the adversity you\u2019re going to learn from and these are the moments we\u2019re going to be tested. Because we\u2019re still, we may not be hitting on all cylinders right now, but we\u2019re still a top-10 team. That tells you we need to clean up our mistakes and that kind of thing, but we\u2019re going to be OK. There\u2019s no need to panic. We need to be better, obviously, but if this is where we\u2019re being judged on right now we\u2019re going to be OK because we can build off of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can Kyle Larson overcome the early hiccups? There\u2019s still more than enough time to do so.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a matter of ironing things out, racing smarter and putting together consistent top results. If anyone\u2019s capable, it\u2019s the driver of the No. 5 car.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what builds teams. Adversity,\u201d Bianchi said. \u201cYou go back to Reddick in 2025. Tyler Reddick didn\u2019t win a race. Now Tyler Reddick is unbeatable, apparently. You\u2019re going to have these moments and you\u2019ve got to figure it out and that\u2019s kind of where they\u2019re at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few drivers are as equipped to run at the front of the pack as Kyle Larson. But Larson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-560040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}