For much of Sunday night’s (Sept. 1) Southern 500, Kyle Larson looked unbeatable.
After qualifying fourth, Larson made his way to the front of the field on lap 46. What followed was an absolute onslaught of epic proportions, as he proceeded to lead 263 of the next 292 laps of the race.
Larson won both stages, and when excluding pit stops and alternate pit strategies, he was never passed for the lead. While keeping it somewhat close, the rest of the field didn’t have the firepower to contend with the No. 5 car. With around 50 laps to go, back-to-back Southern 500 wins — and a regular season championship — looked to be near certainties for Larson.
But things started to go haywire as a rash of cautions came out in the final 50 laps. Chase Briscoe was running second for the balance of the race, and he inched closer and closer to Larson the longer the race went on. And after a series of cautions for Carson Hocevar and Todd Gilliland led to a restart with 40 laps to go, Briscoe’s car came to life.
Larson retained the lead, but Briscoe was all over his back bumper and ready to bounce at the slightest mistake. For the first time all night, Larson looked to be in serious trouble.
Another Hocevar wreck brought out another caution, and Larson restarted on the inside of the front row after Ross Chastain elected to stay out. Larson got a poor restart on the inside line, and that was all Briscoe needed to take the lead and shut the door behind him.
Larson ultimately faded to fourth, more than six seconds behind Briscoe at the checkered flag. He led nearly three quarters of the race, but it was all for naught, as Briscoe took the Southern 500 and Tyler Reddick took the regular season championship by a single point.
To add insult to injury, Larson’s car was so fast that he would’ve lapped the field had the entire race gone green without any cautions.
Between the 263 laps led and the scorching lap times Larson was putting up, a collapse of this magnitude feels shocking. But when looking the recent history of the Southern 500, it isn’t.
The elephant in the room is that Larson doesn’t have the best track record in closing out dominant races, as he’s only won three of the…
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