Kyle Larson rarely ever stays out of the top five these days and the Southern 500 was no different. Yung Money drove a fantastic race to finish P4 but it was not enough to win him the regular season championship. Tyler Reddick took that honor by just one point after finishing P10 in Darlington.
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Looking back, the Hendrick Motorsports driver explained several reasons why he could not win the championship. Perhaps the biggest was how his weekend turned out during the Charlotte race earlier this year.
Larson was competing in the Indy 500 that weekend but rain had delayed the race. By the time he finished it and reached the Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR had called off the Coca-Cola 600 due to bad weather conditions. Yung Money could not run a single lap in that race. Considering he only lost the regular season championship by one point, that has got to sting. However, it was not the only race where he lost points that led to Reddick earning those crucial 15 playoff points.
“It’s easy to look back at that,” he said after the Southern 500. “Yeah I mean, Iowa, Michigan, Chicago, that’s just a few…Charlotte, if I could have just gotten to race there. I mean for us to come up a point short and a spot in the field of the race, I am proud of that but yeah I would have liked to have been…had won it.”
With four race wins so far this season already, Larson has a lot of playoff points which should see him safely through to the round of 12. Unless of course, he has one of the worst runs of his career in the next few races. Considering his form and race craft, it’s unlikely that Yung Money will get eliminated so soon.
Larson explains the importance of bonus points ahead of playoffs
The first round of the playoffs has three unpredictable tracks – Atlanta, Watkins Glen, and Bristol. Anything can happen at these three venues and the playoff drivers have to be very careful about how they go about them. Larson understands that and believes that’s exactly where the playoff points will come in handy. The #5 driver, however, hopes to not have to rely on them so soon into the playoffs.
“You’re obviously nervous of the first round a little bit but we have a lot of bonus points which is nice. Hopefully, we don’t need to rely on it but that’s why you work so hard throughout the year to win stages and win races is to position yourself higher in the points in the playoffs,” he added.
Yung Money is one of the favorites to win the championship this year. After missing out on glory in the finale race last year, the #5 driver will be hungry for some redemption and a second Cup Series triumph.
