Kyle Larson made an uncharacteristic mistake this Sunday. While attempting to move from the top lane to the inside, his left turn was so long that he took out both Shane van Gisbergen and himself. “Was he trying to come all the way down to the racetrack?” said one of the commentators. That mistake from him was very unlike Larson. In the post-race interview, he didn’t mince any words about this and took responsibility for it.

Kyle Larson makes his intentions clear post-race

Right before his crash, he was about to finish the second stage in the top 5. It would put him in a favorable spot to try to win the race. Nevertheless, one mistimed move by him cost him a good haul of points.

“It’s more so frustrating because it was all me. Typically, I get caught up in—I feel like others’ mistakes—in these types of tracks, but that was completely my fault. So that’s embarrassing and frustrating, and I’m just glad nobody else, I don’t think, got taken out.”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver confirmed that there were no issues with his car. He had all the pace necessary in order to make it to the front of the pack. If he had been slightly better, Larson might have won.

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“We had a great car, and it felt like up until that point, I was doing a pretty good job. Guys are always just trying to build their notebook up in these places. I know I crashed right there, but still, we’re getting better and better when it comes to these, especially here at Atlanta. So, yeah, that was fun; I just wish I was out there.”

The race results were incredibly demotivating for Kyle Larson. He made contact with SVG during the incident, but the Kiwi was able to recover and make a record finish in P6 later on. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson is stuck defending his 2025 title on a difficult note.

He is no longer one of the favorites for winning the 2026 titles. Larson’s off-season success, paired with the new format, gave him an advantage for his title defense.

Historically, Kyle Larson has been rather lackluster when it comes to drafting tracks. His average is around P20, which speaks volumes about his struggles. He is still trying to wrap his head around the superspeedways and other drafting tracks like Atlanta. The 2026 Daytona 500 wasn’t kind to him either.

After getting involved in a multi-car wreck caused by Justin Allgaier, Larson would go on to finish P21 in the race. But he is not the only one facing issues at Hendrick Motorsports. Rick Hendrick‘s entire program has come under scrutiny after Atlanta.

Hendrick Motorsports faces backlash at Atlanta

To put it into perspective, Hendrick Motorsports runs a four-car program in the NASCAR Cup Series and has a singular O’Reilly Series program with their developmental driver Corey Day. Yesterday’s race went from bad to worse for each one of them, as they are facing much criticism now with their performances.

It all started on Sunday with Corey Day wiping out nearly half of the field. He was able to scramble a P4 finish in the race, but his mistake proved disastrous for others. Day was trying to defend against Ryan Sieg, who had a great run coming around him. He crashed Sieg into the barrier, and the subsequent spinout took out multiple top-10 finishers from Daytona.

On Sunday, both William Byron and Kyle Larson brought chaos to the field. While Larson’s fumble only took him out and slightly pushed SVG to the back foot, Byron’s crash was much more disastrous. William Byron was mitigating damage from an earlier wreck in the final laps of the race.

His car was handling pretty badly, and his steering had faded by that point. While trying to find clean air and limp back into the pits, he got tagged by Austin Cindric. This set off a chain reaction that took out multiple cars at once.

Byron shouldered the blame for the crash. “I just messed up. I was pushing hard and had to kind of put myself in some weird spots based on the damage. But, yeah, nothing like that, no tire.”

Meanwhile, both Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman could not make it to the top 10. Elliott may have won Atlanta’s second race last season, but he couldn’t bring the same magic to the sprint race this year. He is already struggling in the championship after a near miss at Daytona.

Bowman’s race was also less than noteworthy. After suffering major damage in a multi-car wreck in an earlier stage, Bowman could only manage P23. For a team like Hendrick Motorsports, these results are concerning, especially considering the importance of consistency in the 2026 season.