Kyle Larson is the best driver of his generation on a mile-and-a-half racetrack. He also hasn't won a race since last May. Both of those things are true heading into Sunday — and the Coca-Cola 600 happens to be run on a mile and a half.
Let me lay out the slump first, because it's real. Larson goes into Charlotte on a 36-race winless streak, his longest since he joined Hendrick Motorsports at the start of 2021. His last trip to victory lane was Kansas in May of last year — after which he went out and won the 2025 championship anyway, so let's not act like the sky is falling. But he's finished runner-up four times since, his average finish of 17.3 through twelve races is the worst start he's had at Hendrick, and his teammates have piled up six wins in the time he's gone without one — four for Chase Elliott, two for William Byron. At Texas this month, Larson didn't lead a single lap.
Now here's the thing. Mile-and-a-half tracks are his house. Larson has ten career wins on them. In the Next Gen car he has 17 stage wins on 1.5-milers — no other driver has more than ten — and he's led 1,920 laps on them, more than double the next guy on the list. When the circuit rolls into a place like Charlotte, Larson is usually the fastest car in the building.
So the math is simple. The longest race of the year. Six hundred miles. A track type where nobody in this era has been better. If there is a night to snap a 36-race drought, it's this one.
He's been the best at this for years. Sunday, your Charlotte Motor Speedway gives him 600 miles to prove it again.
Update, May 28: The streak survived Charlotte and now stands at 37 going into Nashville — the Cracker Barrel 400 preview is here.
Update, June 4: The title fight rolls on to Michigan — read the FireKeepers 400 preview.