Larson Avoids Disastrous Round of 8 Start; Salvages 11th-Place in Vegas
Heading into Sunday's South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kyle Larson was the overwhelming favorite to win the race, and for good reason. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was coming off of a thorough drubbing of the field at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL where he picked up his series-high sixth win of the 2024 season.
Additionally, Larson was carrying a two-race winning streak at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Larson would scoot away and lock in his advancement to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Championship 4. That didn't happen.
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Race Results: South Point 400 at Las Vegas
Playoff Standings: NASCAR Cup Series Standings After Las Vegas
Not only did Larson not win the race, but the driver didn't even finish inside the top-10 in Sunday's race, instead settling for an 11th-place run. But with the adversity that flew Larson's way over the course of the 400-mile event, the top-15 run could have been seen as a massive stroke of good luck.
Things began to unravel for Larson, when his team noticed that the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 had picked up a piece of metal, which had become wedged in the front bumper cover of Larson's car sometime in the opening Stage of the race. Larson was called back down to pit road to remove the piece of metal.
After a patch was applied to the nose of Larson's car, the favorite for the race win, and 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, lost all of his track position.
"Yeah, I mean, I had no idea, obviously," Larson said of the debris wedged into his bumper. "And then we had to come and pit, and whatever I was like, 'Dang it.' Now, it's going to be a struggle to get some Stage Points in the second Stage."
Larson overcame that moment of panic, and then also avoided a chaotic crash on Lap 89, which ruined the day for three of Larson's competitors for the NASCAR Cup Series championship -- Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney. As the Stage continued to unfold, Larson sliced through the field like a knife through hot butter.
The tenacious racer worked his way back inside of the top-10 by Lap 27 of the 85-lap Stage 2. As Larson had overcome that obstacle, another one would persist, which would threaten his hopes at a good finish.
In a green flag pit sequence on Lap 125, Larson's No. 5 team had issues getting the right rear tire tightened during their pit stop, and then subsequent issues attempting to get the left side tires off of the car. After the sluggish stop, which took nearly 30 seconds to complete, Larson would have to come back down pit road for a second pit stop to complete his service.
"I was happy with where I was at," Larson said of his position in the race prior to the stop. "And then just kind of became a mess on that pit stop," Larson chuckled.
Due to the issues on pit road, Larson would lose a lap to the race leader, and this would derail the day for Larson.
Larson attempting to work his way in a position to get the free pass, but the No. 5 car wouldn't be awarded the free pass until a Lap 194 caution for a spinning Ty Gibbs. But with Larson back on the lead lap, he was able to finally work his way forward through the field in an effort to salvage a finish of any kind in the frustrating race.
The rally would end with an 11th-place finish. A finish that Larson expressed after the race, "Could have been a lot worse."
While it would have been easy to pile on and throw his pit crew under the bus on a day, where a Championship 4 berth could have been locked up had there been no issues, Larson took the high road, and admitted that he makes more mistakes than his pit crew does throughout the season.
"I make a lot more mistakes then the rest of our team does," Larson explained. "That allows me to be calm and all of that, so, it was a bit of a mess. But we'll assess it and learn from it, and it'll never happen again I know that."
There was no quit in Larson and the No. 5 team even as they lost the lap during that frustrating pit sequence. They knew they had a decent car, and if they could just bide their time, they'd have a chance at a respectible finish.
"We just kept our heads in the game from there forward, and almost got a top-10," Larson said.
Larson, who came into the race as the top dog in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings, dropped to third overall thanks to the 11th-place run. But with his late-race rally, Larson remains 35 points above the Playoff cutline heading into another great track for himself -- Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The California native, who is one of the best in the business at ripping the top-line at Homestead knows next weekend's race will be all about execution as he fully expects to have a really fast car once again.
"Obviously, I love Homestead, and we run well there. [I] would hope for a clean day," Larson said. "Today was not that, but yeah, we're going to be fast there. So, yeah, just try to get some Stage Points and get a good finish."
In 10 career starts at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, Larson has a win, which he achieved in 2022, the first season with the Next Gen car, to go along with five top-fives and five top-10s. While Larson hasn't always gotten the finishes at Homestead, he's virtually always in the mix at some point in the race.
Larson has led at least double-digit laps in half of his starts at the track, and he's led more than 130 laps in three trips to the track in South Florida. If Larson can put in another heroic effort next weekend at Homestead, he'll be able to secure his place in the Championship 4 at Phoenix a week early, but if he can simply come home with another respectable finish, he'll be in great shape to lock his slot in at Martinsville Speedway the following week.
If the Hendrick Motorsports driver ends up hoisitng his second Bill France Cup at Phoenix in a few weeks, he'll likely be able to look back at the rally from a lap down at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a big reason why he was able to pull it off.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.