"Thankfully with his misfortune": Kyle Larson celebrates Team Hendrick’s sweep into playoffs amid Ryan Blaney’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 win

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Thanks to Ryan Blaney’s win at Daytona, all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers are locked into the playoffs. During a post-race interview at the iconic racetrack, Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevy Camaro, revealed his thoughts on the HMS sweep.

William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Larson were already locked in the 2025 playoffs. So, Alex Bowman was the only driver from the HMS camp who had yet to make it. Safe to say, had there been a new winner this weekend, the Tucson, Arizona, native wouldn’t have made it.

“That was pretty crazy there at the end with all the cars around us who needed a win to get locked in, and that was going to hurt him,” Kyle Larson said. “Happy that Blaney won and was hoping just one of us who had won could win. Glad to have Alex in and all four Hendrick cars go for a championship.”

“Looking forward to it with our Hendrick Motorsports team and see if we can get a Chevy win. ... It’s all happening so quick, so it’s hard to kind of process what’s going on."

"I was just hopeful that something would work out where one of us three could win, and was happy that Blaney did because we had a lot of objectives today, but one was to see Alex get locked in. For him to do that was to gain a lot of points and beat the 45 or have a guy win that had already won. Thankfully with his misfortune a guy like Blaney won," he added.

But the good news is that Kyle Larson is among the best at Darlington Raceway, the venue for the first race of the playoffs. He has run 1048 laps at the track, which is the most among active drivers. Furthermore, his average finish of 10.8 is the second best.

Named the Cook Out Southern 500, Larson’s upcoming race is scheduled for this coming Sunday, August 31, at Darlington Raceway. Fans can watch the race live on USA (6 pm ET) or listen to exclusive radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Erik Jones expects to get things straight with Kyle Larson after the recent Daytona debacle.

Toward the end of Saturday’s race at Daytona, Erik Jones found himself at the receiving end. Larson sent him sideways and, as Jones himself told Toby Christie of Sports Illustrated, “bulldogging” through the traffic in front of him.

Jones now wants to have a conversation with Kyle Larson and sort things out.

“I don’t know. I got to ask Kyle,” Erik Jones said in a statement . “The run before, you can see the seven (Justin Haley) and I working really well together and pushing to the lead. Even the 22 (Joey Logano), the 17 (Chris Buescher), all of us were working really well together and pushing the lead when we could and taking the runs for what they were.”

“The five (Larson) there got behind us and was just super aggressive, just kind of bulldogging through us,” he added.

Well, nobody got wrecked, and Jones was able to salvage a top-five finish. Larson finished sixth, right behind the Legacy Motor Club driver.