Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe Taken Out in Massive Wreck to End Stage 1
The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are underway at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and before the first stage has already finished, there have been some major post-season implications.
Kyle Larson, who said Wednesday during NASCAR's Playoff Media Day that the first round of the post-season featured some 'sketchy' tracks in Atlanta and Watkins Glen, was the first driver to find problems after a massive shunt in Turn 2.
In the closing laps of the opening stage, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was running in third and positioning himself to make a charge on Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric when his Chevrolet Camaro snapped loose and then overcorrected into the SAFER Barrier.
As Larson was sliding down the racetrack, nearly-stationary, a massive smokescreen was cast across the racetrack, making it difficult to see the carnage ahead. Chase Briscoe, who scored a walk-off win at Darlington to make the post-season, was unable to avoid the No. 5 and made significant contact.
HUGE WRECK FOR KYLE LARSON AND CHASE BRISCOE!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 8, 2024
Both #NASCARPlayoffs contenders are out before the end of Stage 1. pic.twitter.com/UJsGpF097O
“I’m OK," Larson said after exiting the infield care center. "Thankfully everything held up well inside the car. That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it. I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner. And then I was pretty far around the corner and it just stepped out. I don’t know.. it all just happened really fast.”
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion entered Sunday's Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway as the No. 1 seed in the Playoffs, after recording a series-high four wins during the regular season and finishing second in the regular-season championship.
Larson says that the loose condition experienced seconds before the breathtaking accident was a new feeling in his racecar, admitting that he'd actually been building tighter and tighter as the run continued.
“No, not at all. Never.. not once. If anything, I was getting tighter and tighter," added Larson. "So yeah, it just caught me way off guard. I was never once loose, even in that corner. And then, it just started stepping out. I corrected it and overcorrected it, I guess.”
While Larson has the luxury of several Playoff Points to fall back on in the 'Round of 16', Chase Briscoe, the sole driver in the post-season for the soon-to-close Stewart-Haas Racing, doesn't have that benefit, entering Atlanta below the cutline.
“That’s NASCAR. You can be on top one week and you can be at the very bottom of the mountain the next week," Briscoe said. "It’s unfortunate. I thought our car was an adjustment away from being pretty good. We weren’t very good at all balance-wise and I still felt like I was able to kind of run right there around the seventh to 12th place guys."
Briscoe was running in and around the top-10 at the time of the accident, after hovering around the threshold for stage points throughout the entire 55-lap caution-free stint that started the event.
"I was watching my outside getting into [Turn 1] because somebody kept trying to get to my outside and was probably a little late just trying to see [Larson] wrecking," added Briscoe. "I didn't expect anybody to wreck because they weren't really two-wide, and then I saw the smoke and tried slowing down."
Two #NASCARPlayoffs contenders are out early in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/NNlqp31I2w
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 8, 2024
"I knew he was coming down the racetrack and just kept trying to feed the thing left and slow it down and I couldn’t get left quick enough and then he kind of started sliding back down the track at the very last minute, so I tried to turn back right to avoid him and just KO’d him. It was a big hit. One of the biggest hits I’ve had in a long time."
With a 38th-place result in the cards for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Playoff-opener at Atlanta, the mission over the next two weeks is pretty cut-and-dry for Briscoe and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team: return to Victory Lane.
It's not an impossible mission, though, and one that the Mitchell, Indiana-native successfully pulled off just one week ago in the regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway.
JOSEPH SRIGLEY