It wasn’t easy but Kyle Larson remained in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
The box score shows Larson with a 25th-place finish in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But despite that ominous looking finishing position, Larson was able to move on to Round 2 of the playoffs.
Larson had one of the fastest cars in the race and was battling for the top spot on a late restart. But when Brad Keselowski crashed into the tire barrier racing into the first turn it triggered a multi-car crash that swept up Larson among its victims.
“I knew that it was going to be tough to turn getting into 1,” Larson said. “I didn’t know that all of us were going to go in there and not be able to turn at all. I was going to struggle to make the corner and then the No. 2 (Keselowski), he just went head on into the wall. I was hoping I would have enough room to squeak by him, but I got into him and destroyed the right-front of our car.”
Larson had severe damage to his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and came to pit road for repairs. He was able to get back on track and limp to the finish but not before slamming the wall hard on the final lap once again.
But in the madness of the wild finish that saw Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson crash while racing for the win, Larson was the beneficiary of a tie breaker in the standings. His second-place finish at Las Vegas in this round gave him the advantage over both Aric Almirola and Johnson in the standings and he was able to move on.
“I’m happy to make it to the next round,” Larson said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t get the win today. I felt like I had the fastest car. I would have liked the race to play out there and stay green because it sounded like Brad (Keselowski) was short on fuel and we going to be able to make it, I thought, after all the saving we had been doing.
“But, I guess we’ll move on to next week and try and get a good second round. There are some good tracks coming up for us aside from Talladega. Anybody can be good there. But, we’ll see how it goes.”
