Kyle Larson found trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race, crashing into the pit-road entrance wall in the final stage at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet smacked the sand barrels protecting the pit-wall abutment in the 213th of a scheduled 267 laps in the 4EVER 400 presented by Mobil 1, the eighth event of the 10-race playoffs. Larson was in second place, following race leader Ryan Blaney onto pit road at the time of the wreck, but he carried too much speed on his approach and skidded into the barrier.
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“I’m sorry,” Larson told his crew on the radio. “I did not expect him to slow down that much.”
After repairs, Larson continued for a handful of laps before driving the No. 5 Chevy to the Cup Series garage, ending his race. The incident forced the race to be red-flagged for track workers to replace the protective barrels.
Larson was checked and released from the infield care center. He led three times for a race-high 96 laps and was credited with 34th place in the 36-car field.
“I was just trying to push it as much as I could,” Larson said. “He (Blaney) had a great car and I felt like if he was to come off pit road the leader, he was going to end up winning the race or beating me. I was just trying to maximize my pit-in, and honestly I felt like I was doing a really good job. I just didn’t anticipate him slowing down as much as he did. But on the replay, it looks like I just missed it by a lot. I need to look at data. I knew where the yellow line was and thought I was going to be under control getting there, and then yeah, he just slowed down – I locked the brakes up, slid to the right and clipped him and the barrels.
“I’m pretty upset at myself, more than anything. Whether he got to pit-road speed sooner than the yellow line or not, I could have just done a little bit better job judging it. I hope they are able to recover. I hope he can get a good finish or get a win and get the finish that he deserves. Just a bummer, but we had a great No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy today.”
Sunday’s race is the second of three events in the Round of 8, and the postseason field will be trimmed from eight championship-eligible drivers to four after next weekend’s round finale at Martinsville Speedway. Those four will race for the Cup Series title in the Nov. 5 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Larson entered the event as the only driver clinched in the Championship 4 round. He will be joined in the title-eligible field at Phoenix by Christopher Bell, who prevailed in Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami by holding off eventual runner-up Blaney for the championship-race berth.