Entering Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, all Kyle Larson needed was a solid day. He was 18 points above the cutline and didn’t need chaos.
For the first 95 laps, that game plan worked. The No. 5 team earned 13 stage points in the first two stages, electing to not pit prior to the end of either stage. That was the same strategy as the bulk of playoff drivers that were not locked into the Round of 8.
With just over 10 laps remaining, Larson’s race went awry. The No. 5 Chevrolet got loose off Turn 7 and smacked the outside wall, breaking the right rear toe link. Cliff Daniels called his driver to pit road — originally believing there was no shot the team would miss the next round — and took five laps to repair the damage.
“As soon as I hit the wall,” Larson said of when he began to worry about his points position. “I mean, you give up that many spots, you know you’re going to be close.”
When Larson returned to the track, he remained above the cutline by a close margin. He was racing Daniel Suarez for position, both of which were five laps down after the No. 99 car fought a power steering issue in the second half of the race. Meanwhile, the first natural caution of the race flew with six laps to go for a sign in the racing groove.
The caution allowed for a split strategy. Among drivers that pitted was Christopher Bell, who entered the race 11th in points and was in a must-win scenario. The No. 20 team took four tires and restarted in 12th position.
The restart was madness. AJ Allmendinger moved Chase Elliott for the lead, only for Kevin Harvick to do the same to Allmendinger. Further back in the field, Chase Briscoe spun off the front bumper of Austin Dillon, dropping the No. 14 car below the cutline.
Larson looked to be comfortable until a caution was thrown for curbing that came off in the backstretch chicane. Briscoe pitted for fresh tires and would be on offense in an overtime finish.
“Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road course race, how much can change so quickly,” Briscoe said.
On the restart, Briscoe drove through the field, making a bold move into the backstretch chicane passing Cole Custer and Austin Dillon on the final lap of the race. He took the checkered flag two points ahead of Larson. With Bell winning, the 2021 Cup Series champion was knocked out of the playoffs in the second round.
“I just made way too many mistakes all year long,” Larson said. “Made another one today. Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.
“Just extremely mad at myself. [I] let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today.”
Larson said there’s nobody to blame for today’s incident but the driver. Had Larson not bounced off the wall and escaped the late-race chaos, he would have easily advanced to the Round of 8 and still been among the favorites to win the championship.
Instead, he’s now racing for fifth in points. And for the third time in his career, Larson has been eliminated from the playoffs in the Round of 12 (2017, 2018, 2022).
“We’ll keep fighting,” Larson stated. “We’ll come back stronger. I’ll definitely come back stronger and smarter, make better moves out there. Just mad at myself.”
As for the final four races of the season, there’s one goal: “Go race hard,” he said.
Briscoe, however, advances to the Round of 8 despite having just seven top-10 finishes in the opening 32 races of the season. The No. 14 team swept the Round of 12 tracks with top-10 efforts (the longest streak of his career), and sits just nine points below the Championship 4 cutline entering the Round of 8.
“Super proud of this race team,” Briscoe said. “Looking forward to the Round of 8. A lot of really, really good racetracks for me. If we can get to Phoenix, we know we got a good car there, too.”
Briscoe locked himself into the 2022 postseason by winning at Phoenix in March.