Kyle Larson celebrates waiving the NASCAR playoffs with another victory

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Kyle Larson celebrated NASCAR by endorsing his playoff appearance with his third Cup victory of the season — a victory Sunday at his home track.

The victory for Larson, who grew up 80 miles from Sonoma Raceway in Elk Grove, was his second on the hilly road course in scenic wine country. It was the fifth road course victory for the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion and propelled him to the top of the current series standings.

He wasn’t sure how he got into victory lane after exiting the pits eighth following his final service stop of the race with less than 30 laps remaining. He had to fight his way to the front and only regained the lead with eight laps remaining.

“I didn’t know what we were doing in terms of strategy. I was just out there doing laps,” Larson said. “I don’t know, we study the whole strategy, but it’s like doing homework: I don’t really know what I’m looking at.

“So I thought, ‘Well, man, these guys are going to have to stop another time, maybe?’ Then we said we had to race and pass these guys, I got a little nervous.

Despite his early season dominance, it took until Tuesday of this week for NASCAR to grant Larson the waiver he needed to compete in this year’s playoffs because he missed the Coca-Cola 600 last month . Larson became the fifth driver to attempt to run the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s longest race of the season on the same day, but rain in Indiana and North Carolina ruined the attempt.

The Indy 500 was delayed four hours due to rain, forcing Larson to miss the start of the Coca-Cola 600. By the time he arrived in North Carolina, the race had been stopped due to the rain, never resumed and Larson never completed a lap. . Because of this, it took a week of internal debate at NASCAR to decide whether one of its biggest stars would receive the pass required to remain eligible for playoff participation.

His victory at Sonoma only showed how foolish NASCAR would have seemed if it had ruled against the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Jeff Gordon, vice president of Hendrick Motorsports, said Larson and the No. 5 team were never rattled while waiting for a waiver.

“I didn’t see it affecting the majority of the team,” said Gordon, who added that Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels allowed Hendrick executives to handle communications with NASCAR. “As far as how it reflected on the team, I didn’t see where they were really (bothered). They seem to be working as usual. I think the best remedy in all these situations is to return to the circuits.

“Especially when they came here, Kyle’s home track, a track that they love to race at, I think that put a lot of that to rest.”

Larson led 19 of 110 laps and passed defending winner Martin Truex Jr. with eight laps remaining to confirm the victory in his No. 5 Chevrolet. It was his 20th win since joining Hendrick in 2021, which ranks third in the organization behind Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

Truex would finish second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing but ran out of gas before reaching the finish line. He was placed 27th as a pair of tow trucks followed him to the finish.

This gave second place to Michael McDowell in a Ford for Front Row Motorsports. Chris Buescher finished third in a Ford for RFK Racing and Hendrick’s Chase Elliott was fourth. He was followed by Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain, who had contact on the final lap with Kyle Busch that moved Busch from fifth to 12th.

Hamlin out early

Denny Hamlin, the Cup Series points leader entering the race, saw his day end abruptly just two laps into the event when his Toyota engine failed, sending him to last place at Sonoma for the second year in a row. .

Hamlin said he had no warning that the engine was about to explode. He started 25th and was 29th when his engine failed.

“No. Nothing. It’s just the transmission is a little weird for the track,” Hamlin said. “It’s a lot of high-end RPM stuff, but like everyone else and I’m not one of them. not really sure. They’ll look at it and figure it out, but it’s definitely not ideal.

Hamlin, who had a 38th-place finish, has finished outside the top 30 at Sonoma for three straight years.

It wasn’t much better for Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, who hit the wall 16 laps into the race and finished one place better than Hamlin, 37th.

“I just made a mistake and knocked us out of that day,” Gibbs said.

Following

NASCAR is bringing the Cup Series to Iowa Speedway for the first time in the track’s history. NASCAR began using the track in 2006 for lower-level series, then for some national series events in 2009, but never for Cup. NASCAR stopped using the track after the 2019 season. IndyCar made the track an annual stop in 2007 and has had a presence there every year since except 2021.