Hendrick Motorsports President Jeff Andrews has laughed off suggestions that Kyle Larson's victory at Talladega on Sunday was rigged after the No. 5 driver moved a step closer to retaining his NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Larson, 34, now needs just 59 points during this weekend's Xfinity 500 - the penultimate race of the season - at Martinsville Speedway to wrap up his second successive championship following a dominant postseason Chase that has yielded three wins and two runner-up finishes in eight races.

The latest of those victories, however, has not gone down too well with some NASCAR fans, with several conspiracy theories alleging that Larson's finish was manipulated after he surged from 11th to 1st on the very final lap to secure his first-ever points-paying superspeedway win.

One of the primary conspiracy theories centers on Larson illegally dipping his left tires below the double-yellow line boundary to advance his position coming off Turn 4, breaking one of the most controversial rules in the NASCAR rulebook.

The theory suggests that NASCAR intentionally ignored the clear rule violation and chose not to disqualify Larson because he is a major star and a championship frontrunner, though the organization insisted that, from their inside perspective, Larson's tires remained on the double-yellow line rather than below it, making the pass entirely legal under standard rule interpretation.

The second conspiracy theory focuses on other Chevrolet drivers, specifically Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, and Cole Custer, deliberately backing off or "lifting" off the throttle on the final stretch to orchestrate a path for Larson to win.

NASCAR, however, has once again debunked the theory by auditing telemetry and SMT data from the cars, which showed that all trailing drivers remained at 100% throttle through the final turn to the finish line.

Instead, the shifting landscape of the pack was actually triggered by standard superspeedway chaos, including a mid-pack jumble between Todd Gilliland and Denny Hamlin, and Austin Hill losing fuel pressure, which scattered the lead cars and handed Larson a massive drafting run.

Now, Andrews has further dismissed any claims of a "rigged" finish or rule-bending by officials for his Hendrick Motorsports driver, laughing off social media theories during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Thursday.

"There's been some incredible stuff on social media this week, but we just try to ignore all that stuff and go about doing our business," Andrews said. "But you know, kudos to everyone on the Chevrolet camp.

"Obviously, not the best start to the season for Chevrolet, but the way all the teams have worked together, and the heat partner teams have worked together to get the OEM and GM and Chevrolet back in Victory Lane and in contention for the championship, where they deserve to be...

"So, hats off to Eric Warren and Tony Lunders and everybody at the GM Tech Center there, and the way they've gathered around us.

"We're proud to be, obviously, partners of Chevrolet ever since we've been racing, right, for 42 years now. And so, looking forward to doing our best to bring them another championship at the end of 2026."