Can Michigan End Kyle Larson’s Longest Hendrick Winless Streak?

The 2021 Cup champion returns to the track where he earned his first NASCAR Cup victory looking to snap a 38-race drought.

Kyle Larson has pleasant memories of Michigan International Speedway.

On August 28, 2016, Larson, then driving for team owner Chip Ganassi, scored the first NASCAR Cup Series win of his career at Michigan, outrunning future teammate Chase Elliott by 1.47 seconds to finish first in the Pure Michigan 400.

The first of 32 Cup wins would launch Larson onto a run that eventually would lead to two Cup championships.

But, as teams prepare for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at MIS, Larson remains in a puzzling slump, his winless streak now reaching 38 races, his longest since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021.

Larson has finished runner-up four times since his last victory. He seemed headed for bigger things last week at Nashville Superspeedway, leading 56 of 300 laps and sitting out front for big chunks—23 and 32 consecutive laps—of the race. But he finished 23rd in the wacky late-race scramble.

Larson has only one top-20 finish in the past five races.

MIS could be the answer to Larson’s troubles, but it’s a big hill to climb. Chevrolet teams haven’t won at the track since Larson scored there in August 2017.

“I am motivated everywhere, but it’s going on several years since I have won at Michigan, so I would love to find Victory Lane again,” Larson said. “I feel like every time I’ve gone to Michigan, we’ve been really good. I’ve been close to winning a couple different times – just haven’t done it.”

Hendrick Motorsports, the Cup Series’ all-time winningest team, has found the sledding tough at MIS. Hendrick cars haven’t won there since 2014, when a guy named Jeff Gordon scored. Across that time span, Hendrick has won 95 Cup races at 27 different tracks.

Hendrick is fifth on the list of all-time winning teams at MIS with eight wins.

Ford drivers have won nine of the past 11 MIS races, a major feather in the hat for the Blue Oval with car manufacturers headquartered in and around nearby Detroit.

Larson has three wins at Michigan, matching his career-best total at Kansas, Bristol and Las Vegas. He scored those victories while driving for Ganassi.

Although Larson has found Victory Lane difficult to crack across more than a year, he sits sixth in the current Cup point standings, the highest position of all non-race winners this year. He has four stage wins and has scored more stage points (122) than all drivers other than point leader Tyler Reddick (124) and second-place Denny Hamlin (123).

Qualifying for Sunday’s race is scheduled at 6:10 p.m. Saturday.