NASCAR insider: Time to sound the alarm on Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson?

Through the first three weeks of the NASCAR Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have struggled a bit out of the gate.

It was a bit of an unorthodox start to 2025 for the series as a whole, with Daytona, Atlanta and COTA beginning the season. Two unpredictable drafting-style tracks and a road course, but the Cup Series is headed to a couple of their more traditional ovals moving forward. Perhaps that’ll aid Hamlin and Larson in their turnaround.

Regardless, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi took some time to evaluate where both veteran wheelmen stand on the latest episode of The Teardown, following the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. The latter isn’t sounding the alarm yet, as he’s willing to give the duo some time to turn it around.

“I’m not somebody who’s going to sound the alarm on some of the guys who are buried in points,” Bianchi said, regarding drivers like Larson and Hamlin. “I think it’s too early, and we’ve had two superspeedways and I get that, but you do look at the standings and you see Kyle Larson, P16. You’ve got Denny Hamlin, P17. You’ve got a Brad Keselowski, P26. These are guys that we thought were going to be in the playoffs. Certainly two out of the three, locked into the playoffs.

“Not worried about them by any means, but I’d like to see something from them, a little bit, you know what I mean? I don’t want to say to ease the concerns a little bit, but like, ‘Okay, now we’ve got this out of the way, what do you have for us at these more traditional tracks?’ If you can go to Vegas or Phoenix or Homestead and kind of run off a series of top tens, for any of these guys, you’re going to be like, ‘Okay, they’re going to be okay.’ You’re going to see their standings jump. That’s the thing I’m looking at these next few weeks.

“The guys who got off to a hot start, and look at the standings — you have a Bubba Wallace in P6. Michael McDowell in P8. Ricky Stenhouse, P10. Austin Cindric in P11. I feel like these next few weeks are really going to kind of shape things. The guys who got out, really capitalized on this wacky, weird beginning stretch, let’s see if they can hold serve, and then other guys conversely, who maybe were like, ‘You know, whatever,’ these races, now can kind of come to the forefront a little bit.

“I truly believe these next three, four, five weeks, because I’m throwing Martinsville and Darlington in there, are really going to be super telling, and very insightful.”

Alas, Bianchi makes some salient points regarding Hamlin and Larson, especially considering how the next month and change will shake out in the Cup Series. In a couple of weeks, the worries surrounding both drivers could dissipate completely.

Time will tell if they’re able to make good on their potential, but bet against Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson at your own risk. They’ve proven it time and time again, and they’re likely going to be just fine in 2025.