Tire Gamble Falls Short for Kyle Larson at Darlington

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team rolled the dice on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, but the gamble did not quite pan out the way they would have liked it to.

Under caution with 28 laps to go, Larson’s team elected to stay out on track on their tires that already had a handful of laps on them, boosting themselves into the lead for the final run to the finish and banking on there being enough of a buffer between themselves and the others that stayed out and those behind him on fresh Goodyear Eagles.

Aside from Larson, three others stayed out, including Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, and Ryan Preece, while all of the other leaders, among them eventual race winner Christopher Bell ducked off onto pit road for tires.

On the track notoriously rough on tires, it was certainly a gamble, but one that Larson noted was really their only move to try and surpass the dominance of the Toyotas.

The race restarted with 24 laps to go and Larson bolted away from the field like a bullet out of a gun with Logano keeping pace as the one car buffer between himself and Bell, but in short order, Bell had jumped back into the runner-up spot and set his sights on Larson.

For 10 laps, Larson kept Bell at bay, but ultimately the tire disadvantage that Larson was at against Bell finally gave way and Bell was able to power past him into the lead with 12 laps to go.

A power move by @CBellRacing!

He takes the lead in the #Southern500. pic.twitter.com/WTgMOGMivC

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 7, 2026

From there, Larson was in survival mode as he tried to hold only every position he could to leave Darlington in the best points position possible.

He would fall to fifth by the time the checkered flag fell, gaining six points in the standings over points leader Denny Hamlin. Entering the night, Larson was 55 points back and now he heads to Gateway at -49 points.

“I thought more people would stay out. I think another two or three people staying out would have helped,” Larson explained of the call.

“I think, ultimately, they would have got to me. I was just hoping I could get some laps where I could take care of my tires. (Christopher) Bell got to second really quickly and we were just instantly on the defense trying to block lines, so I wasn’t really able to manage my tires like I would have liked.

“I feel like I did the best job I could, honestly, but I just didn’t think he would get to second that fast so I could have spent those first five or seven laps saving my tires so I would have something when he got there. And then ultimately, I held him off longer than I thought I could. There was a point where I thought I had maybe damaged his tires enough where maybe I could hang onto it. He was just too close to me in (turn) one and I couldn’t run up the hill like I wanted to.”

While Larson was confident that staying out was the only move they could make, both Bell and his crew chief Adam Stevens noted after the race that with tires meaning so much at Darlington, it was only a matter of time before they would be able to get past him and retake the lead.

“For us we felt like five was too many, five laps on tires was too many, especially with the laps that we had left,” said Stevens.

“I wasn’t concerned about the cars that stayed out. I was more concerned that we were going to have a handful or more on rights, and I thought that could be trouble. Our long-run pace was so good I didn’t want to do anything to really jeopardize that. Thankful it played out with the decision-making that it did for the field. I felt pretty confident in our situation as long as we had a good restart.”

“He was doing a great job holding me off, but I’m like, he ain’t going to be able to do that for whatever it was, 20 more laps,” Bell added.

“So, I knew that it was just a matter of me trying to build a run, get beside him, and then he ultimately ended up slipping in one and two there. But yeah, whenever I got in second and Kyle was on the older tires, I felt like it was mine for the taking as long as the yellow didn’t come out and thank God it didn’t.”