Kyle Larson’s hopes of capturing a win at Darlington Raceway were cut short after an early crash in the Goodyear 400. On just the fourth lap, Larson lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro and slammed into the wall coming off turn two. The impact caused significant damage, forcing his car to be towed back to the garage for repairs. At the time of the incident, Larson was running 19th—the same position he had started the race. Although Joey Logano was nearby when the crash occurred, he was not involved.
FOX Sports posted a replay of the wreck on X (formerly Twitter), highlighting the moment with the caption, “Big trouble and heavy damage for Kyle Larson!” Despite being more than 150 laps down, Larson eventually returned to the track late in Stage 2 to salvage as many points as possible. Thanks to NASCAR’s revised Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP), his crew was able to complete repairs without a strict time constraint.
This race held special significance for Larson as part of Darlington’s Throwback Weekend. He honored NASCAR legend Terry Labonte by running a retro Kellogg’s paint scheme, modeled after the one Labonte used to earn his final career win at Darlington in 2003. The #5 car, backed by HendrickCars.com, sported the iconic Tony the Tiger design.
Larson had expressed excitement about the tribute just a week earlier on Instagram, saying it was “pretty sick” to be running Labonte’s 2003 scheme. He hoped to score a win in that same car style as a tribute to the Hall of Famer’s final victory. “It would be even more special and neat to win at the track that he won his final Cup Series event in,” Larson said.
Unfortunately, his early accident prevented him from chasing that dream. Larson, who entered the race second in the championship standings with one victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway, ended up spending much of the event in the garage.
At the time of Larson’s return to the track, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron had been dominant, leading the most laps and capturing the Stage 1 win.
