It has been a while since Kyle Larson raced, dominating the rest of the field. At Darlington on Sunday, he was forced to settle for an underwhelming 19th-place finish. Despite the disappointment, he found reasons to stay optimistic.
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Larson began the race in fifth place before falling down the order following damage to his No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro. The driver admitted he felt pretty average throughout the day during the post-race interaction with the media.
“I’m not sure why, but we had a big one there in the final stage, and we just struggled after that. I’m not sure if the splitter got bent up or what happened, but it just took all my problems and made them all worse,” said Larson.
“We also had radio issues and all sorts of other problems, so to have a bad race and still gain on the cutline is rewarding. Obviously, we want more on this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team,” he added.
Larson entered the playoffs top of the standings and fell to third after the playoff opener, the Cook Out Southern 500. He expressed faith in his team to figure out what went wrong and recover in the next two races at the World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol.
While he exuded positivity, Larson had not been happy immediately after he took the checkered flag. His crew chief, Cliff Daniels, had gone on the radio and consoled him that the result was not his fault.
A day to forget for all Hendrick Motorsports drivers
Larson, in fact, was the best performer for Hendrick Motorsports on Sunday. He exited Darlington third in the standings, 38 points above the Round of 12 elimination line. William Byron, the regular-season champion, finished in 21st place. He is fifth on the points table, 25 points above the elimination line.
Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle, was frustrated with the performance. “We’re embarrassed. We’ve got to execute a lot better all around. Nothing comfortable. We didn’t do s**t today. We’ve got to improve and get better and race our ass off every week, or it’s going to be a long offseason,” Fugle told the press.
Chase Elliott is in 11th place, nine points above the elimination line. The driver in the most dire situation is Alex Bowman. The No. 48 driver needs to make up 19 points over the next two races or face the axe.
The next Cup race will go green at Gateway at 3:00 PM ET on Sunday.
