TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The late-race situation was about as rosy as could be for Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson after running 500-plus miles at Talladega Superspeedway. The pair ran 1-2 in that order as Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs showdown lurched into overtime, and the two controlled the front row for the fateful final restart -- Larson lined up high after lane choice, with Byron low.
"Just play the game," No. 24 spotter Branden Lines told Byron as the regular-season champ's Chevrolet got up to speed and inched ahead with the field barreling toward the white flag. Shortly thereafter, that dream 1-2 scenario unraveled.
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Both Hendrick Motorsports drivers faltered in the final circuit of Sunday's YellaWood 500, watching their opportunity for a victory and an automatic championship-race berth evaporate. Larson bailed out of the pack with half a lap to go, his No. 5 Chevrolet stumbling with a dry fuel tank and leaving him with a 26th-place finish. That result was one spot below 25th-finishing Byron, who was overcome by a Toyota-led charge in the outside lane and later spun through the trioval as the low-lane shoving grew more intense.
The two now find themselves on opposite sides of the playoff bubble with one chance remaining to clinch a Championship 4 slot in next Sunday's Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway. Larson sits 36 points above the elimination line as the provisional final driver in; Byron is the first driver out as it stands, down by the same 36-point margin.
"Looks like we've got to win," said Byron, who placed 36th after a crash in the previous week's Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas. "It looks like all the guys below the cut have to win, so we've just got to go there and do that. So we've had two strong weeks but no results, and we've just got to go there and try to do the best we can."
Byron's hopes looked optimistic throughout the last two-lap dash, and they seemed to strengthen when he hooked up behind Larson's No. 5 for the last stretch. Once Larson's car stammered, he was left without a teammate to tandem with, and a Toyota train of Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs and eventual winner Chase Briscoe rocketed past him.
"We got linked together really good through (Turns) 1 and 2 and the bottom, I got clear for a minute, and then just couldn't get linked for whatever reason off of four, and those guys were just pushing really hard on the outside lane and just pushed past us," Byron said. "So I don't know. The pushes just didn't get timed up perfectly, and lost control there of the bottom lane, and then just seemed like the outside had more energy for some reason, and then the 5 ran out of gas, so that hurt us a little bit even more. I mean, overall, I think we gave it our best effort. We were tight there on fuel, so just trying to manage that, but it just didn't work out, and then we got spun out there coming to the line."
Larson was just behind Byron on the official rundown, but his hopes for contending expired a half-lap from the end. No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels said he knew the team's final splash of fuel would leave Larson tight on making it to the end, but he still tried to encourage his driver that the tank would hold.
[caption id="attachment_492337" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]"I mean, the numbers we had, we thought we were gonna run out literally at the checkered flag," Daniels said. "So I would say that was basically a quarter-gallon from where we ran out on the back straightaway to making it back around. In a game of small margins, it was just a small margin that made the difference."
Said Larson: "We obviously knew it was close, because we got the warning on whatever pump we were on under caution, and it sounded like we would be OK once I went to the other pump, even where I was under yellow, having to flip the switch. So yeah, he had a lot of confidence when he told me, so it gave me confidence. And yeah, it was just hammer down. I mean, there wasn't really anything I could do otherwise, that last run there. Then I got another warning on the final pump that we have and was just hoping that it would make it to the finish, but it started sputtering shortly after that, so just got out of the way."
Larson's spot relative to the playoff bubble is a bit more hopeful, but he said that his chances of reaching his third Championship 4 in the last four years are teetering. Like him, all four drivers below the cutline -- Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott -- are past Martinsville winners. A victory next week by any of them would make the avenue to the Nov. 2 finale at Phoenix Raceway much more narrow.
"Honestly, it's a great [place] to be that if nobody below wins, but you've got to assume one of them guys is going to win. They're all really good there," Larson said. "I mean, every single one of them has a win there. I believe, and multiples at that. So yeah, it'll be a fight, I think, a point battle between me and Christopher. You know, you don't want to be a four-spot guy, but yeah, we'll see. Hopefully, we can go execute again, like we have been, and be up front."