Kyle Larson had another frustrating afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
LINCOLN, Ala. – After starting from the ninth position in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Kyle Larson appeared to be in position for a solid finish.
Larson placed fifth in Stage 1 thanks to a well-timed pit stop in conjunction with a timely caution. While the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro finished 28th in Stage 2, it was a game of patience and positioning for the finish in Stage 3.
As Stage 3 progressed, Larson climbed from the mid-20s to the top-15, steadily climbing up the leaderboard while searching for the optimal line around the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
On top of that, like his other competitors, Larson kept himself in the draft while trying to keep his fuel mileage, top of mind, top of sight for the finish.
At one point, Larson climbed back inside the top 10 within the final 10 laps. Although his car was not as dominant or quick as the likes of Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott or Bubba Wallace.
Still, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was in contention for a good finish or win, avoiding some of the unforced errors that were commonplace in his superspeedway starts.
Larson was in the mix during Stages 1 and 3, biding his time before a Turn 2 crash on Lap 190 eliminated him from contention. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
A Lap 185 multi-car accident involving Corey LaJoie, Riley Herbst, Harrison Burton, Joey Logano, William Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Daniel Suárez prompted the race’s first Overtime restart. Restarting inside the top-six, Larson attempted to carve his way toward the front once Noah Gragson left the middle lane open in Turns 1 and 2.
Instead, the gap that appeared to be for the taking for Ross Chastain and Larson quickly closed up with the latter losing control of his car, spinning and washing up the 33 degree banked corner.
Not long after, Ryan Preece, in his best attempt to drive his way past the smoke, drove right into the side of Larson’s No. 5 car.
Both drivers felt the brunt of their savage impacts as evident with the in-car cameras and heavy damage with both machines. In Larson’s case, a large gash was visible on the right side door with a door bar, visibly inside the cockpit, severely compromised.
After being evaluated and released from the infield medical center, Larson chimed in on his harrowing incident.
“Thankfully, I’m OK, but my car is absolutely destroyed,” Larson said. “The cockpit’s a mess. I’m just thankful that I’m alright and all that. It’s just a bummer. We put ourselves in position once again on a superspeedway and the results don’t show it.
“Another wreck not of my doing on a superspeedway. I just hate it but we’ll keep getting better, and eventually it’ll have to work out I would think.”
Relegated to a 33rd place finish and fourth Did Not Finish (DNF) of the year, Larson looks for a better weekend and race at Dover Motor Speedway with Sunday’s Würth 400 (2 p.m. ET on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Last year, Larson placed sixth while Chase Elliott tallied his first win of the season.
