Kyle Larson trusted the process while going through long NASCAR Cup Series winless drought

The defending champion in any sport will always be under a microscope. Such has been the case for 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team this season.

Larson won the 2025 title despite not winning over the final 24 races of the season. It was surprising to see the No. 5 team, winners of 26 races from 2021 to May of 2025, go winless for that long. 

It was even more surprising to see Larson go winless through the first 27 races of this season. In a year where Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports as a whole struggled, Larson's average finish has dropped to 16.8, and while he ran up front and led laps at various points this season, the killer instinct he had from 2021-25 appeared to be missing. 

That was until Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway, when Larson led 80 laps at a track he and HMS had previously struggled at en route to career win No. 33 and his 27th with Hendrick. 

The victory snapped a 51-race winless streak and vaulted Larson to second in the standings, only nine points back of leader Denny Hamlin. 

"I feel like the last year and a half, not winning, I feel like I’ve been more into learning and trying to get better, open to doing simulator stuff, building a more consistent lifestyle to all benefit the Cup Series," Larson said Sunday. "I was still going through a winless drought, but I trusted the process of what I have going on since all that, which makes a win like today rewarding.

"It also just proves that we have a great group. Like I said, I’ve had to answer to you guys for 51 races now about we’re still good. It’s just trusting the process. I don’t think you can get too far out of whack on what you think."

Larson rode a consistent back of half of 2025 to his second championship and has been solid, though not elite, this year. He still has 11 top five finishes through 28 races, tied with Ty Gibbs for the third-most in the Cup Series, and he's led 838 laps, good for second behind only Hamlin.

Jeff Gordon reveals how Kyle Larson dealt with winless streak

"I’ve seen this in my own career, in others’ over the years, where things aren’t going your way. You make some mistakes or things happen to get you in a vulnerable position," said Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion who now serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. "Maybe a team makes a mistake. That’s one thing, and that can get you down. But the thing that gets you down the most, especially when you’ve had success, is not having fast race cars, not having cars capable of running up front.

"I think, if anything, it’s probably challenged those guys the most. We’ve had a lot of conversations this year about maybe how we’ve been approaching some of the races, knowing we’re behind... This sport can humble you. As confident of a driver and as fast of a driver as Kyle is, you got to sometimes be patient, let the race come to you, let the speed of the cars be a part of the process, which he very much is, then get to see the results of all that."

Two races ago, Larson was still seen as a championship contender, but it was hard to imagine a world in which he won a third title without getting back to victory lane. With his winless streak now history and momentum on his side, he could very well become the first back-to-back champion of the Next-Gen era and the first since Jimmie Johnson won five consecutive championships at HMS from 2006-10.

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.