How NASCAR Playoff Drivers Fared at Las Vegas: Larson Is First to Clinch Championship 4 Spot

A dominating Kyle Larson recovered from a sideways tag of the wall just past the halfway mark in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to edge Christopher Bell at the checkered flag and earn a berth in the Championship Four with his fourth victory this season.

Larson led seven times for 133 of the 267 laps at the 1.5-mile track. However, his incredible save from an incident that could have ended his victory charge coupled with quick, flawless pit stops played critical roles in his 0.082-second victory over Bell.

“I feel like that was my moment. That was my moment to make the Final Four. Didn’t quite capture it,” said a dejected Bell, who left Las Vegas two points below the cutline.

Bell says he didn’t know what else he could have done on the final lap.

“Coming to the checkered there, I knew that he was going to be blocking, so I’m like I’m going to try to go high,” Bell says. “He went high. I don’t even know if I had a run to get by him there coming to the line. Just wasn’t enough.”

Larson, who qualified second, and Bell, who started from the pole, clearly had superior cars from the race’s beginning. In the first 82 laps, Larson and Bell led 65 and 17 laps, respectively. However, on lap 142, Larson nearly saw his victory hopes evaporate in a cloud of dust when the rear of his car smacked the wall in turns one and two and turned sideways. Instead of over correcting, Larson slowed and recovered, driving on damaged tires until Alex Bowman hit the wall on lap 145, bringing out the fourth of seven caution flags.

That yellow flag allowed Larson to pit for fresh tires and his crew to work on his car’s balance.

However, it was Larson’s final stop on lap 212 during the sixth caution period that made the difference. Just as Larson’s crew did two years ago when he won the NASCAR Cup championship, his crew got him off pit road first. Brad Keselowski left second, and Bell was third.

With 20 laps remaining, Bell had moved into second, 1.603 seconds behind Larson. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver then mounted a charge in his Toyota. By the time they reached the 10-lap to go mark, Bell had chopped Larson’s advantage to 0.967 second. When they took the white flag for the final lap, Larson possessed a narrow 0.347-second lead. Bell went high through turns three and four, Larson blocked him as they exited the fourth turn and when Bell tried to pass low, he fell short.

Larson, who won the playoffs’ opening race at Darlington on Labor Day weekend, could see Bell coming in his mirror.

“I was hoping those lappers were going to give me the bottom,” Larson says. “The 38 (Todd Gilliland) peeled off to the bottom. I knew I couldn’t follow him. I just didn’t want to go all the way to the top, leave the middle open.

“Thankfully, Christopher always races extremely clean. It could have got crazier than it did coming to the start/finish line.”

Truex Squeezes Above the Cutline

NASCAR Cup regular season champion Martin Truex Jr. hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish in any playoff race this season until Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when he placed ninth in the South Point 400. It was a finish that left him two points above the cutline with two races remaining to determine the Championship Four.

Truex, one of four Toyota drivers in the Round of 8, led once for nine laps in the 267-lap event, but spent most of the event fighting an ill-handling race car.

“I don’t know what we had going on,” Truex says. “Restarting up front, we were pretty good, and then on the long runs, really good. I thought probably a third-place car, but once we got there—16th, 18th, whatever it was—it was just really bad on the restart. I would lose three, four, five spots every time.

“Then once we got strung out and got going, I would pick them off and work our way forward. But then we would get another caution and I would lose a couple more. It was an uphill battle.”

Hamlin Narrowly Above Cutline

Denny Hamlin, like Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr., finds himself just two points above the cutline following his 10th-place finish in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hamlin led once for 23 laps, but it was in the first half of the 267-lap event.

“I didn’t have a very good restart the second to the last and got split three wide and lost two spots,” Hamlin says. “We pitted, and the adjustment just didn’t work with the car and add the track position to it. I was just way too tight at the end and couldn’t do much.”

Reddick’s Streak Ends at Las Vegas

Entering Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Tyler Reddick was the only driver who had led laps at every 1.5-mile track on the 36-race NASCAR Cup schedule this season.

However, that streak ended Sunday for the 23XI Racing driver. Not only did he not lead a lap, he never ran in the top five after the first 80 laps in the 267-lap event.

“We missed it a little bit on the handling,” says Reddick, who enters next weekend’s race at Homestead, Fla., 16 points below the cutline. “We were really loose and it kind of boxed us in. To get an eighth out of it, that was probably a better finish than we had on pace.

“Yeah, we lost ground on the cutline, but how our car drove today, it should have been a lot worse than it was. We got something out of it and kind of minimized the bleeding.”

Buescher Knows Difficult Road Ahead

Chris Buescher heads to Homestead with a 23-point deficit to the cutline that determines the four drivers that will race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway in early November. He readily admits his 11th-place finish in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway makes the next two weeks “much more difficult.”

However, Buescher says it could have been a more dismal day.

“A worst-case scenario would have been in the garage 38^th with a handful of the others that made big mistakes,” Buescher says. “It just wasn’t good enough compared to the guys we’re gonna be racing.

“The pit box was super slick today and that really made it difficult. We lost a lot of spots and trying to get them back was just tough on the day.”

Buescher said he had a difficult time with dirty air when he was shuffled back in the field. The RFK Racing driver said he needed longer runs and green-flag cycles to sort out everything and he didn’t get them.

Results

NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

1. (2) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 267.

2. (1) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 267.

3. (6) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 267.

4. (21) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.

5. (10) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 267.

6. (12) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 267.

7. (3) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 267.

8. (8) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 267.

9. (4) Martin Truex Jr. (P), Toyota, 267.

10. (15) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 267.

11. (5) Chris Buescher (P), Ford, 267.

12. (9) Joey Logano, Ford, 267.

13. (7) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 267.

14. (13) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267.

15. (36) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 267.

16. (24) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267.

17. (18) Michael McDowell, Ford, 267.

18. (16) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.

19. (28) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 267.

20. (33) Harrison Burton, Ford, 267.

21. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 267.

22. (20) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 267.

23. (19) Austin Cindric, Ford, 267.

24. (27) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.

25. (30) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 267.

26. (32) Ryan Preece, Ford, 267.

27. (29) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 266.

28. (23) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 266.

29. (26) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 266.

30. (34) Brennan Poole(i), Ford, 266.

31. (31) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 266.

32. (35) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 266.

33. (17) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 263.

34. (11) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 259.

35. (14) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 144.

36. (25) Carson Hocevar(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 110.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 135.635 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 57 Mins, 10 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.082 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 7 for 36 laps.

Lead Changes: 20 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: C. Bell (P) 1-2;K. Larson (P) 3-28;C. Bell (P) 29-39;K. Larson (P) 40-68;C. Bell (P) 69-72;K. Larson (P) 73-82;M. Truex Jr. (P) 83-91;D. Hamlin (P) 92-114;B. Keselowski 115-117;K. Larson (P) 118;B. Keselowski 119-145;C. Bell (P) 146;B. Keselowski 147-149;W. Byron (P) 150;B. Keselowski 151-154;K. Larson (P) 155-168;C. Bell (P) 169-211;J. Yeley(i) 212-213;K. Larson (P) 214-221;B. Keselowski 222;K. Larson (P) 223-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson (P) 7 times for 133 laps; Christopher Bell (P) 5 times for 61 laps; Brad Keselowski 5 times for 38 laps; Denny Hamlin (P) 1 time for 23 laps; Martin Truex Jr. (P) 1 time for 9 laps; JJ Yeley(i) 1 time for 2 laps; William Byron (P) 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,20,6,45,19,12,11,8,4,24

Stage #2 Top Ten: 5,1,20,11,6,24,8,12,45,23