Kyle Larson catching up with Denny Hamlin in key NASCAR statistic of the 2024 season

Kyle Larson is not far from catching Denny Hamlin in a key NASCAR stat battle. 22 races in the current season, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver tops the field in most laps led (772). However, the Hendrick Motorsports ace stands strong at 762, all set to replicate his 2023 stronghold.

According to reports, Kyle Larson led 1127 laps last year, making him the top driver in that aspect. The year before, his teammate Chase Elliott led the highest number of laps (857). However, Kyle Larson was the leader again in 2021, the same year he joined Hendrick Motorsports and won his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Trey Ryan, a popular NASCAR analyst on X (formerly Twitter) reflected on the same through a recent post, which read:

"Something to follow over the remaining 14 races in the 2024 Cup Series season will be the fight to lead the most laps"

"After 22/36 Races:

Denny Hamlin - 772 laps led

Kyle Larson - 762 laps led"

"This is the closest the top 2 have EVER been in laps led after 22 races."

As of now, NASCAR is on a two-week break due to the Summer Olympics being held in Paris. NASCAR's media partner, NBC, is busy with the coverage of the same. NASCAR will be back on NBC Sports on August 11 for the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.

With just 4 races to do till the postseason and 14 till NASCAR crowns its 2024 Cup Series champion, Kyle Larson stands at the top of the leaderboard with 749 points. On the other hand, Denny Hamlin is 4th in the driver standings with 706 points to his name.

"1 out of 10"- Kyle Larson's crew chief on the former's chances of winning the Brickyard 400

A little over a week ago, Kyle Larson kissed the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time in his career. However, his crew chief, Cliff Daniels, wasn't too confident about his driver winning the 400-miler crown jewel event.

Daniels has led Kyle Larson to the victory lane 16 times and also to the 2021 championship. The 36-year-old appeared in a recent episode of the 'Dale JR Download' and revealed what he thought was the chances of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team winning the race.

"1 out of 10," Daniels said as reported by Sportsnaut. “Just being honest. I think we, and maybe I’ll just speak for myself. I think I underestimated how much those guys were going to have to save fuel, you know, knowing that they were going to be more than just a lap short."

Several drivers like Brad Keselowski and reigning Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, were left pondering whether to stomp on the throttle or to reserve fuel to last till the checkered flag. Thankfully, Larson was on fresh tires with less than 20 laps to go, and his car had enough fuel as well.

"Of course, at the time, we had fresh tires, we had the fuel, so we didn’t need to take anything into consideration, as far as our level of aggression," recalling Daniels. "I was glad we had a good enough adjustment in the car that Kyle can really kind of arc out and turn to build a run, and it was pretty wild to see the way he got through there so quickly."

Today, Kyle Larson has 27 career wins in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has won 4 races this year, the highest among all drivers so far, and is already locked in the playoffs. Will the Elk Grove native be able to sign off with a second Cup Series title this year? Only time will tell.