Reigning champion Kyle Larson eliminated from Cup playoffs

Larson, in his first season driving for Hendrick Motorsports last year, won a series-high 10 races and his first series title in a record-setting season.

This year, the first with the Next Gen car in the Cup Series, has proved more difficult for Larson and his No. 5 team.

He’s won twice and led 368 laps but nothing close to 2,581 laps led of a season ago. Still, Larson appeared to be in good position to advance on points to the semifinal round of the playoffs during most of Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval.

However, Larson’s fortunes changed dramatically after he hit the wall in the area of Turns 5 and 6 late in the race. He was forced to pit under green on Lap 99 of 112 with a broken toe link, which required extended repairs.

He eventually returned to the race on Lap 104 but in 35th and five laps down, which suddenly put him in danger of dropping out of the top-eight that would transfer.

Larson basically had to spend the final laps hobbling around the track, hoping Chase Briscoe didn’t gain positions on the track but it was not to be. In the final two laps, Briscoe went from outside the top-20 to finish ninth and claimed the final transfer spot by two points over Larson.

“Yeah, I mean, you give up that many spots, you know you’re going to be close. Then the caution there. So, yeah, I just made way too many mistakes all year long. Made another one today,” Larson said. “Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.

“Just extremely mad at myself. Let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today.

“We’ll keep fighting. We’ll come back stronger. I’ll definitely come back stronger and smarter, make better moves out there.”

With Larson appearing to shoulder much of the blame for his performance this season, he was asked how he could make it up to his team in what is left of the 2022 season.

“Go race hard,” he said. “There’s definitely no other person to blame but myself for today. I feel like our team put ourselves in position as well as we could on points. Got as many stage points as we could. I think it was plus 27 or 28 at the time when I screwed up. Just for no reason, either.

“I wasn’t even pushing that hard at that moment. Got loose, caught me off guard. Yeah, just got to keep working on my craft, just be better, make a lot less mistakes.”