Dale Earnhardt Jr. Declares Indy 500 Failure “Knocked Kyle Larson off His Perch” in 2025

Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on the reasons for the massive drop in Kyle Larson’s performance in the Cup Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Declares Indy 500 Failure “Knocked Kyle Larson off His Perch” in 2025

Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell (Via IMAGO)

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Kyle Larson came into the labor day weekend thus year with hopes of redemption in his second ever double attempt. But his Indy 500 run ended early due to a wreck and his desperate attempt to win at the Coke 600 ended fruitless. Many in the racing community sees this as the reason for the drop in the No:5 teams’ performance and Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of them.

In the recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, JRM co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on Kyle Larson’s average outing at Dover and the slow improvement he is showing after the drop in performance. Junior asserted that the double duty failure killed him momentum and since then, they haven’t been able to gain the consistency alongside confidence yet.

I think that kind of knocked him off his perch. The schedule wouldn’t allow him to find some consistency to be able to gain confidence and get the team back to where it needs to be, everybody feeling good about everything.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

So, how the No:5 Chevy team is working on getting back to performing on a high level? Well according to Dale Jr., the team is taking a conservative approach. They have decided to stop panicking, is focussed on the basic and produce a race that will give them the resurgence they are looking for.

Over the last handful of weeks, I’m sure that they’ve all been questioning, are we doing everything we need to do? …They’ve decided not to panic, get back to the basics, get in the part of the schedule where they might can find some peace of mind.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains the human side of Kyle Larson amidst recent struggles

Earlier talking about the same situation, Junior asserted that things around the Larson camp is getting better win him winning High Limit races recently and securing top-5 Cup runs. To get back to the winning mentality, like every other driver, Larson has to win more in the races he is starting, and get back the winning mentality.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Larson
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Larson (Via IMAGO)

When he starts doing good in that, it’s like everything starts getting better. His Cup stuff starts getting better as well. He needs to be behind the wheel of a race car, and he needs to be winning for him to get up on plane and be where he wants to be mentally.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

The veteran racer asserted that Kyle Larson is human as the remaining drivers in the current grid and the lack of momentum affects him like the rest. Self-doubt starts creep in, which will affect the driver’s performance, decision making and eventually not being in the fastest car in this time hurts the team.

He’s no different than anybody else, in terms of when you don’t have the results and the results are harder to come by. He’s just as human as the rest of us, and he’s going to have some self-doubt, or what am I doing differently? What should I maybe do differently or new? They are going to have those internal conversations as a team. I feel like that’s all in the review mirror now.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

But Junior seems to indicate, the No:5 team is over that tough stretch and is ready to move on to the next race, determined to win. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming years.

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