By Don Coble, Florida Sports Wire
Thanks to an unexpected late-race charge last Sunday at the Talladega Superspeedway, Kyle Larson’s biggest challenge at this week’s Xfinity 500 at the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and the season-finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway will be making sure his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet starts.
As long as the motor turns over, the racer from Elk Grove, California, will likely win his third NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
This year, the sanctioning body changed its Chase for the Championship format for the sixth time, hoping to pump more interest into the final 10 races. Larson threw a proverbial monkey wrench into the plan by winning three of the eight races in the playoffs, while the other contenders struggled to avoid a wrecker’s hook.
Larson was 11th going into the third turn on the last lap, and he managed to work his way to eighth in Turn 4. But as others scrambled for position, Larson got a big push from Ross Chastain in the final half mile to rocket to the victory in a photo finish.
Without the miracle charge in the final 35 seconds and a 12-car pileup 150 yards short of the finish line, Larson’s lead in the standings would have been 49 points. Instead, he will head into the .526-mile paperclip-like short track with a 73-point cushion.
And since the maximum number of points a driver can earn is 76, Larson is on cruise control to defend his championship.
“It would be great to gain a handful of points next week [at Martinsville], and I guess we would have it locked up,” Larson said. “Never in a million years would I have imagined leaving [Talladega] plus-73.”
The victory was Larson’s first win in 49 combined starts at Talladega or the Daytona International Speedway – the two raceways that require special speed-reducing rules for safety reasons. His average finish at Daytona is 21.1 and even with the victory, 21.4 at Talladega.
Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth despite being involved in two multi-car crashes, is in second place in the standings. He knows he needs wins – and problems by Larson – in the final two races to have a chance to win his first title.
“Truthfully, they’ve done a lot of things right. A lot of things have gone right. We’ve not done that,” Hamlin said. “We’ve got a big ol’ gap. I think as long as he can keep his four tires on it the next two weeks, he’ll be champion again.”
Hendrick executive and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon isn’t convinced Larson’s championship is a done deal.
“It’s certainly not over by any means,” he said. “They got to go score stage points and put a good finish together [at Martinsville]. That’s not just a guarantee. I know it’s Martinsville, and Hendrick runs good at Martinsville, but that’s just not a guarantee.”
Rick Hendrick-owned cars have won 32 Cup races at Martinsville, including Geoff Bodine’s 1984 victory in what was supposed to be the company’s final NASCAR start. The win, however, convinced Hendrick to continue.
Now Hendrick is on the threshold of his 16th championship.
Christopher Bell is currently third in the rankings, down by 74, followed in a distant fourth by Chase Briscoe, 79 points in arrears.
Penske Racing teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are fifth and sixth, respectively.
“It’s on life support,” Blaney said of his championship hopes. “That’s for sure, but you never know. We’ll just have to go show up next week and try to do the best we can.”
Practice starts on Saturday at 1 p.m., followed by pole qualifying at 2:05 p.m. (both on TruTV). The main event is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start on Sunday (NBC).
(Photo courtesy of NASCAR)
