It was objectively decisive.
Kyle Larson responded to his only real setback in the championship race at Phoenix with his first career superspeedway victory at Talladega while scoring the most stage points of anyone else.
Meanwhile, virtually everyone chasing him in the standings was involved in incidents, and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team looked like a team ready to accept the Bill France Cup for the third time in six years.
It could happen as soon as next week at Martinsville, and a week before the finale at Homestead-Miami, with Larson only needing to score three more points than everyone else and that’s it.
If Larson is 77 points ahead next week, it’s over. If he’s 76 points ahead of everyone and Chase Briscoe is further than that, it’s over. Briscoe would have to win and tie Larson to even earn a tiebreaker, based on wins in The Chase for the Championship.
Kyle Larson celebrates with his team at Victory Lane, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Karl Anderson Sportswire Icon via Getty Images
It’s over, even if Larson doesn’t want to take it yet.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Larson said. “There’s two more races. It’s so easy to look at things and say, ‘Oh, the 5’s got it.’ We could go to Martinsville, there’s a pileup in Turn 3 on the first lap. I could crash into the radiator and be done with it.
“All the guys in (the media center) you’re saying, ‘This person’s out there, this person has it under lock and key.’ They win or something happens, boom, the picture completely changes. I’m not getting ahead of myself at all. I’m not going to let you get me ahead of myself either.
Okay, sure, but to put that into perspective, there are now only seven mathematically eligible drivers and their scenarios require a lot of stack-ups in turn 3 and their victory.
Kyle Larson
Denis Hamlin -73
Christophe Bell -74
Chase Briscoe -79
Joey Logano-100
Ryan Blaney-107
Tyler Reddick-126
Is Hamlin finished?
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Hamlin said. “The 5 is booming at the right time of year,” he said. “If you asked me at the start of the day if I would take an eighth, I mean, probably. “So that’s exactly what we have. It’s disappointing, but also like our day could have been so much worse. We didn’t get any stage points. We tried. But there are just a lot of games going on. It’s really, really hard, hard to do it.
Hamlin is referring to the Chevrolet armada that protected Larson’s position on the track throughout Sunday’s race. William Byron was particularly committed to pushing Larson to as many stage points as possible.
Kyle Larson wins, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Ross Chastain, a lap behind but leading the outside lane, effectively jammed in front of those behind him. Chastain ultimately pushed Larson to victory.
In a way, Chastain leading the outside lane contributed to the second big crash that wiped out several contenders, including Joey Logano, through no fault of his own.
“It’s a race,” Logano said. “Everyone has the right to race. He also races for himself. I don’t know. Was he trailing? He was on the first lap, so it wasn’t his fault that we wrecked. I don’t think you can really blame anyone.”
“That’s exactly what speedway racing is these days. Sometimes it really sucks. Sometimes it’s pretty awesome and sometimes you get on the lid and say it sucks. I don’t know. I love Martinsville.”
However lucky everyone was to win this championship, they had to fully capitalize on these last two races, Larson’s two worst tracks. He admitted he was terrible at Phoenix and had never won a superspeedway race.
None of Larson’s closest pursuers won at Phoenix and virtually all of them crashed at Talladega when he finally won at a superspeedway.
That includes Ryan Blaney, who is certainly the favorite to win at Martinsville.
“He’s on life support,” Blaney said of his title hopes. “For sure, but you never know. It certainly doesn’t help. It’s something we couldn’t afford today and unfortunately it happened, so we’ll just have to go next week and try to do our best.”
Ultimately, this was the weekend Larson won the championship, and crew chief Cliff Daniels did his part to quickly turn the page on the Phoenix disaster.
“I came in on Monday and I totally owned it,” Daniels said. “It’s up to me what setup we had in the car. I thought there was more to translate from our good setup at Gateway to Phoenix than what reality shows for this tire and this track.”
Daniels said he was proud of his driver and his team for their efforts to do the best they could with the decision he made for them.
“Once we got over the disappointment we had on a Monday, we probably spent more time laughing and having fun preparing for Talladega this week than we have in a long time,” Daniels said. “The team spirit was high. Everyone was positive.
“I’ve said this quote several times after the race, but calm seas don’t make a talented sailor.
“Even when you’re going through tough times and rough seas, you have a good group of people willing to work together and believe in each other, in the process we’ve built and in the team exercises we continue to build on every week. There’s a lot of power in that. When you can come together and identify with that. I’m proud that all 5 teams did that this week and prepared for this weekend.”
That’s how they always are, Larson said, and that sort of stability is why they’re on the verge of winning their third championship in six years.
“We don’t celebrate much when we win, and we don’t get depressed when we have tough races either,” Larson said. “When you look at a lot of different championship organizations and teams in a lot of different sports, I think that’s a common theme that you see. It’s led by Cliff and his leadership.
“That’s exactly what we’ve always been about. I think we’re really good at refocusing on what’s ahead of us and not being too far ahead or behind what we need to accomplish.”
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