Kyle Larson's stretch of recent struggles continued on Sunday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He went from being in position to inherit the lead to crashing into the outside wall.
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Larson spun and hit the wall on Lap 43 of the Brickyard 400, the result of him suddenly blowing a tire. This caused race-ending damage and ensured that he would leave the 2.5-mile track in 39th place.
Kyle Larson blows a left rear tire and crashes hard in Turn 3 at the Brickyard 400 😬 pic.twitter.com/9Jtc4j1QDP
— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) July 26, 2026
This crash followed a strategic move by Larson and the No. 5 team. They had pitted earlier than leader Carson Hocevar and had leapfrogged him in the running order. This put him in a position where he would cycle to the lead and win stage 1, thus locking up 10 crucial points.
This did not happen. The tire blew and sent Larson into the wall.
"We just had a tire let go," Larson told TNT after exiting the infield care center. I wouldn't say pushing it had anything to do with it. I was only going three-tenths quicker than I had been with saving fuel. It was just a little bit of bad luck, I guess.
"I'm proud of this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. We qualified 10th and did what we had to do to gain the track position to get to the lead. We executed all of that really well.
"There was still obviously a lot of the race left, but I feel like we were positioning ourselves within the race and within the strategy to set ourselves up well to go after a win. It's a bummer, but we'll get back after it at Iowa (Speedway)."
This last-place finish at Indy continued a difficult stretch for Larson, who has not won a race since Kansas Speedway on May 11, 2025. It marked his third time in the last four races that he finished 34th or worse.
He finished 34th at Chicagoland Speedway on July 5. He then finished 34th at Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 12 after being involved in two separate incidents.
Larson rebounded slightly with a 15th-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway, but then he crashed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As a result, he lost more points.
The two-time Cup Series champion started this recent stretch of struggles fifth in the standings. He then fell to sixth in the standings after the Chicagoland race. Now, he is seventh in the standings.
