Kyle Larson is breaking out of his 'slump' at the perfect time

What qualifies as a slump for Kyle Larson is a stretch of races most NASCAR Cup Series drivers would absolutely love to experience. 

From the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25 to the Aug. 10 race at Watkins Glen, Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, had only five top-10 finishes and seven top-20 results in a 12-race span. For a driver who led the points going into the Coke 600 and had won three of the season's first 12 races, it was worrying. 

Over the last eight races, however, Larson has looked like himself again. He's coming out of his 'slump' at the perfect time. 

Larson has five top-10 finishes over the last eight races and has led 98 laps in that same span. On Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Larson battled Shane van Gisbergen and Christopher Bell for the race lead in Stage 3 before finishing runner-up. 

That gives Larson plenty of momentum as he prepares for the Round of 8, in which he clinched a spot after earning points in Stage 1 of Sunday's race. It's the fourth time in five years with Hendrick Motorsports that Larson has made the penultimate round of the postseason. 

Larson has largely flown under the radar in 2025 since his most recent win of the campaign at Kansas on May 11. But it would be a mistake for his competitors to not take him seriously as a title threat over the next four weeks. 

The first race of the Round of 8 will take place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile track that Larson has turned into his personal playground in recent years. In nine starts at LVMS with Hendrick Motorsports, Larson has three wins, seven top-10 finishes, five top-five efforts and has led 664 laps — an average of 74 per race. 

Las Vegas may be Larson's best opportunity to win his way into the Championship 4, but you can no longer think of him as an afterthought at Talladega. For years, Larson's horrible luck at superspeedways kept him from being a contender at the 2.66-mile facility, but that's beginning to change. 

Larson has finished top-four in the last two Talladega races, and even managed to win Stage 1 at Talladega on April 27. If he can survive the inevitable carnage that will occur, don't count Larson out in the closing laps. 

Even if Larson is kept at bay at both Las Vegas and Talladega, the final Round of 8 race at Martinsville is another golden opportunity for the No. 5 team. Larson struggled at Martinsville in the Gen-6 era, but since the advent of the Next-Gen car in 2022, the half-mile 'Paperclip' has become one of his best tracks. 

In seven Next-Gen starts at Martinsville, Larson has a win, six top-10s, five top-fives and has led 255 laps. Team Penske — and, in particular, Ryan Blaney — may have a stranglehold on Martinsville in the fall at the moment, but Larson will be in lockstep with the No. 12 all afternoon. 

Larson may have struggled throughout the summer, but he's turned up the wick in the fall as he looks for his second Cup Series title.