Larson to carry Busch tribute livery at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Kyle Larson will pay tribute to a former driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 car with a paint scheme reminiscent of a memorable Kyle Busch victory.

HendrickCars.com will give up its livery at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Busch’s home track, on Oct. 4 for a design mirroring the Kellogg’s car that Busch drove while at Hendrick Motorsports in the early 2000s. In fact, Busch drove this particular car to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2007, which was the debut race for the Car of Tomorrow (NASCAR’s fifth-generation race car).

But what many remember is what Busch did afterward. Busch got out in victory lane and declared, “I’m still not a very big fan of these things. I can’t stand to drive them. They suck.”

The victory, which came on March 25, 2007, was the fourth of Busch’s career. It was also his last with Hendrick Motorsports.

Larson's livery tips a hat to the one used by Busch when he became the first driver to win in NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow at Bristol in 2007 (above). Getty Images

“To me, it was important to run a Kyle Busch tribute scheme because we share the same number and I really looked up to him,” said Larson. “Just from the good battles we had, and then even moving on to having children, watching how he coaches Brexton and just really trying to pay attention to how he mentors his kid and I how can relate to my children. To me, he’s just the best driver I’ve gotten to compete with in stock cars. For me and our team to be able to honor Kyle Busch and take this scheme on our Cup car to Las Vegas in the fall is going to be really special.

“Thank you to HendrickCars.com, Samantha Busch, and the whole Busch family for allowing us to run this paint scheme to honor Kyle, to show what he meant to me and to the sport. I look forward to getting out to Vegas and hopefully having a good run.”

Busch left Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hired. Hendrick Motorsports continued to use the No. 5 with Casey Mears (2008), Mark Martin (2009-2011), and Kasey Kahne (2012-2017).

The organization brought the number back with Larson's signing in 2021. Larson has since won 26 points races for Hendrick with the number, along with two championships.