Kyle Larson Can Rest Easy; He’s In NASCAR’s Cup Series Championship 4 After Victory At LVMS
Kyle Larson punched his ticket to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship race in Phoenix, AZ on Sunday afternoon with a dominating victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson and his Hendrick Motorsports #5 team won both stages in the event and held off a determined Christopher Bell to take home the victory, locking them into a shot at the Cup Series title this season.
“Today was a really good race for us as a team,” Larson said. “We were able to get to the lead early and I was really struggling with the balance of our car at that point.”
From the moment the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was out front, Crew Chief Cliff Daniels and the team went to work to make the car better for Larson.
“We made some adjustments and got our balance to a better spot,” he said. “However, we still weren’t quite perfect. We had some cautions fall our way to get the first stage win.”
Then came probably the moment of the race that had Larson and his fans on the edge of their seats.
“In the second stage, I got really loose and about crashed off of turn two,” he said. “The caution came out shortly after that and we were able to re-rack things and put some new tires on. Luckily, we were able to win that stage too.”
As the final stage went on, Larson was one of five good cars all vying for the victory. You had Bell, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Brad Keselowski and Larson all in the mix. Fortunately, on the final pit stop, Larson’s team came through.
“The pit crew did a great job on the final stop to get us control of the race,” he said. “We were able to stretch our lead out enough to where I knew the other guys would be coming. I just hoped I was able to have enough time to hold on and we did.”
As the race closed in on the finish, the gap Larson had on the #20 of Bell began to rapidly shrink. As the two exited the fourth corner on the final lap, it was a battle of two great friends for a guaranteed spot in the championship race.
Was Larson confident he would be able to hold him off?
“No, I wasn’t confident at all,” he said. “The 43 (Erik Jones, a lapped car) let us go which I was very thankful for. All the way down the backstretch, I was hoping the 38 (Todd Gilliland, a lapped car) was going to run the middle or top. I wanted that clean air for the bottom.”
Gilliland didn’t.
“When he pulled down to the bottom, I knew I couldn’t follow him,” he said. “It was going to choke me down too much. I really didn’t know what to do at that point.”
That’s when Larson chose the middle through turns three and four, while Bell went to the top.
“I thought my best bet to hold onto the lead was to go to the middle,” he said. “I just hoped that I had enough grip. I hadn’t been there that whole run. When I went to the middle, I was really loose.”
Bell closed in, right to Larson’s rear bumper.
“I knew Christopher was going to be able to get a run,” he said. “Thankfully, he wasn’t able to get to my outside before he got to the exit. Then, I looked in my mirror and had to zig and zag a little bit to try and hold him off. He hit me square in the back bumper and that kind of closed off the win for me.”
For his part, Christopher Bell was extremely critical of himself for not sealing the deal, knowing this was a golden opportunity to solidify his position in the championship race.
“I really feel like that was our chance to make Phoenix this year and it slipped away from us,” Bell said. “We still have two more races to get ourselves in position so I feel good about that. However, to be that close today really stinks.”
Bell had every opportunity to move his friend Larson out of the way, but didn’t take it. He knew that’s not how he wants to be raced and didn’t want to do that just to get the win.
“We (he and Larson) have been cool for a while,” he said. “I don’t know what else I could have done to get by him so now it’s on to Miami.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver now sits three points behind teammate Martin Truex Jr. heading into this weekend’s action at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he’ll always wonder what if.
“I definitely think I could have completed the pass had I gotten there a little earlier,” he said. “Kyle was really struggling and hanging on. I just didn’t get there.”
Kyle Busch, Keselowski and Chastain completed the top five. Ryan Blaney crossed the finish line in sixth but was disqualified in post-race inspection for a left front shock damper that didn’t meet the specified length by NASCAR.
Blaney was credited with 36th place in the final run down and now sits 56 points out of the final championship playoff spot. That means he’s in, virtually, a must-win situation if he wants to make the final 4.
Other drivers still in the hunt for the championship include Byron who moved up to sixth, Tyler Reddick who finished seventh, Truex who came home eighth, Denny Hamlin who finished ninth and Chris Buescher that rounded out the top 10 in tenth.
Heading into Homestead, Larson is locked in but Byron is 11 points to the good, Hamlin is +4 and Truex is +3.
While Bell is outside of the cut line (-3), Reddick sits 15 back, Buescher 23 back and Blaney 56 behind.
Race results
1. Kyle Larson
2. Christopher Bell
3. Kyle Busch
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Ross Chastain
6. William Byron
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Martin Truex Jr.
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Chris Buescher
11. Joey Logano
12. Bubba Wallace
13. Aric Almirola
14. Daniel Suarez
15. Kevin Harvick
16. Michael McDowell
17. Austin Dillon
18. Corey LaJoie
19. Harrison Burton
20. AJ Allmendinger
21. Justin Haley
22. Austin Cindric
23. Ty Dillon
24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
25. Ryan Preece
26. Todd Gilliland
27. Erik Jones
28. JJ Yeley
29. Brennan Poole
30. BJ McLeod
31. Chase Elliott
32. Chase Briscoe
33. Ty Gibbs
34. Alex Bowman
35. Carson Hocevar
36. Ryan Blaney (disqualified)
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