Kyle Larson 2026 Season Report Card: How the Champion Earned an A-
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing 2026 Season Report Cards, where every full-time Cup Series driver gets a grade computed from all 36 races, not opinion. First up: the champion, the number 5.
The Short Version
Kyle Larson's 2026 season ended with his third Cup Series championship and his second in a row, 49 points clear of Christopher Bell. He led the series in laps led with 1,238 and won three races, all of them in the 10-race Chase. But the first 26 races were rough: no wins, a 17.2 average finish and nine finishes of 30th or worse. Add it all up and his season grade is an A-, not an A+. That gap is the story of his year.
Why the Kyle Larson 2026 Grade Is an A- and Not an A+
Every HHR report card grade comes from the same math. After every race, each driver gets a score out of 100 based on where they finished in the field, how many spots they gained or lost from the start, how many laps they led, and a penalty for not finishing. The season grade is the average of all 36 race scores, curved against the 35 drivers who ran the full year.
Larson's season score ranked 8th of 35, which lands at A-. Denny Hamlin, by comparison, averaged an 8.9 finish and graded out at A+. The championship format rewards the last 10 races. The report card weighs all 36 the same. That is why the champion is not at the top of the grades, and it is not a knock on the title. It is a measure of a whole season.
Kyle Larson by the Numbers
Here is where Larson ranked among the 35 full-time drivers in 14 stats. The bar and the circle show his rank (1 is best). The number on the right is the actual stat.
The speed was never the question. Larson ranked 1st in laps led and 1st in laps led per start at 34.4. He was 3rd in average driver rating (96.1), 3rd in average running position (12.0), 3rd in top 5s (15) and 3rd in top 10s (21). He also ran 597 fastest laps, 4th in the field.
The weak spots are just as clear. He ranked 35th of 35 in average positions gained at -5.3 per race. He usually started up front, around 9th on average, and too often finished behind where he started. He was also 35th in finish spread, which means his results swung harder than anyone's. When it went right he won. When it went wrong it went very wrong.
A Regular Season That Kept Slipping Away
Through the first 26 races, Larson led 659 laps and did not win once. His average finish was 17.2. Three of his four crashes came in that stretch: Atlanta in February, Talladega in April and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in July. He finished 30th or worse nine times before the Chase started.
The race that sums up the first half is Bristol in the spring. Larson led 284 laps, his most in any race all year, and finished 3rd. The car was there. The finishes were not.
The Chase Was a Different Driver
Then the Chase started and the number 5 became the best car in the sport. Larson averaged a 7.3 finish over the final 10 races, with three wins and six top 5s:
- World Wide Technology Raceway, Sept. 13: started 2nd, led 80 laps, won.
- Kansas Speedway, Sept. 27: started 2nd, led 235 laps, won. His most dominant race of the year.
- Talladega Superspeedway, Oct. 25: started 10th, led 23 laps, won.
He also ran 2nd at Bristol and Las Vegas in that stretch. The only real miss was Phoenix in October, a crash and a 34th-place finish. At Homestead he clinched the title by finishing 4th in Stage 1, then brought it home 12th. Per Jayski, it was a record 16th Cup championship for Hendrick Motorsports.
What 2027 Looks Like
Nothing changes on the number 5. Larson signed a five-year extension with Hendrick Motorsports in February that runs through 2031, and Cliff Daniels was his crew chief for all 36 races in 2026. Every ride and crew chief change for next year is on our 2027 silly season tracker.
The defense of the title starts at the Clash at Daytona on Feb. 13, then the Daytona 500 on Feb. 21 at 2:30 PM ET on FOX. Start times and channels for every race are on our race TV guide.
The question for 2027 is simple. If Larson keeps the Chase version of himself for all 36 races, the grade goes up and the rest of the field has a problem. Every other driver's report card is on the 2026 report cards page.
The Bottom Line
Larson was the fastest driver in NASCAR in 2026 and the champion. He was not the most consistent, and the A- says exactly that. Three titles in, the scariest part is that he won this one with half a season.
Gear Up for the Champion
- Kyle Larson 2026 Kansas Speedway Clean Sweep Winner T-Shirt
- Kyle Larson 2026 Enjoy Illinois 300 Win T-Shirt
- Kyle Larson 2026 Cup Series Race Schedule T-Shirt
- Kyle Larson HendrickCars Uniform Pit Hat
Sources: NASCAR official race results and loop data for all 36 2026 points races; championship details via Jayski; contract extension via FOX Sports.
