TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Larson exited his No. 5 Chevrolet after 500 miles at Talladega Superspeedway with a beaming smile. He wasn’t in Victory Lane with a horseshoe-shaped wreath of fresh flowers around his neck, but shaking off a handful of daunting speedway streaks with a clean top-five finish was satisfaction enough.
Larson placed fourth in Sunday’s YellaWood 500, avoiding the day’s biggest crash and strengthening his hold on positive ground in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at what’s been one of his most challenging tracks. The result also broke the Cup Series’ longest string of finishes outside the top 10 where aerodynamic drafting tactics apply, filling a 14-race void.
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“I mean, eventually, right, it’s got to work out, and today was just that day,” Larson said. “Especially with that wreck on the backstretch, that easily in the past would be us getting in the middle of that somehow. But we got through it, and yeah, we had a great car.”
Larson exits Talladega and heads to the Round of 12’s elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course with a comfortable 52-point cushion — pocketing a 34-point gain Sunday, relative to the elimination line. He was one of four of the 12 remaining playoff-eligible drivers who scored stage points at both breaks, navigating a treacherous stretch of four-wide racing through Stage 1 and contending with a tough entry to his pit stall near the RFK Racing No. 17 Ford of Chris Buescher.
Larson’s best break came in the massive crash that snarled more than 20 cars, including eight drivers involved in the postseason fight. With Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford crossed up in front of the pack after an aggressive low-line push, Larson joined a host of fellow Chevrolet drivers who sailed through in the top lane with minimal bumps.
When the track cleared for overtime, Larson shook out with a prime spot — second in the bottom lane behind Talladega master Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford. Up top was Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with help from fellow Chevy driver William Byron. Larson stayed glued to Keselowski, who didn’t waver far from his lane and wound up just 0.006 seconds shy of a victorious Stenhouse at the stripe.
“I wanted to give him a good shove down the backstretch, get him clear at some point through (turns) three and four, and then hopefully when the 47 (Stenhouse) had some momentum back, I was hoping that he would move up and they’d either chase each other way up, and I could get a run to the lead and to the start/finish line,” Larson said. “But Brad’s really smart, and yeah, he felt like his best opportunity was probably to stay committed to the bottom lane. It was probably the right decision, because he only … I mean, he didn’t lose by much. So I think he would have had an easier opportunity of losing had he moved up to try and block.”
All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers made gains relative to the playoff bubble, but the strides made by William Byron and Larson were the most pronounced. Byron took third place Sunday and rode a stage-point bonanza to maintain his lead in the Cup Series standings, advancing to the next round on points. Larson’s uptick helped offset a 21-point net loss in the previous week’s round-opener at Kansas Speedway, and his plus-52 margin was helped by finishing fourth in Stage 1 and nine in Stage 2 at Talladega.
That execution, combined with a dose of good fortune when the late-race melee broke out, was enough for No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels.
“I think the most realistic take that I can have is that was a very typical day for how it goes for us,” Daniels told NASCAR.com. “You know, we certainly probably have the worst finishing position of anyone in the field when it comes to speedway races, but I would imagine we’re among the best of stage points scored. Typically, we execute well in the stages and we get stage points, so doing that again today was a lot of what we’ve worked really hard to try to put ourselves in position to do. Certainly nice to have all the teammates to work with and have it go the way it did, to score some stage points. Then at the end of the race, typically we’re in that fourth-to-10th bubble where the wreck starts, and most of the time we just don’t make it through. And the difference today is the wreck happened right in front of us, right where we were, and this time we did make it through, so good, heads-up driving by him. Good, good job for the team to stay in it all day, and yeah, thankful to get out of it relatively clean.”
Larson enjoyed a good word of congratulation on pit road afterward from Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon, a six-time Talladega winner during his Hall of Fame driving career. For Larson, it was a more modest Talladega resume-builder, but one worth savoring when chaos reigned around him.
“I mean, it’s only my second top five in like 10 and a half or 11 years of Cup racing, so I’m very happy with it,” Larson said after his 20th Talladega start. “And yeah, like I keep saying, I know we’re capable of doing it. You’ve just got to find some luck along the way, and today we did find that luck, so it’s good.”