Kyle Larson felt the victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway would be determined by who had control of the race coming off pit road, and by trying to be aggressive during a round of green flag pit stops, Larson took himself out of contention.
On lap 213, Larson followed race leader Ryan Blaney to pit road. The No. 5 kept up momentum and tried to close the gap coming to the commitment line, but quickly closed on the Ford, locked up the brakes and tagged Blaney in the bumper. Larson then hit the sand barriers that protect the outside pit wall.
Larson hits the barriers at the entrance of pit road! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/13MvjQr6wc
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 22, 2023
The damage to the right front ended Larson’s day. He finished 34th after winning the first stage and leading a race-high 96 laps.
“I was just maximizing all I could and I didn’t expect him to slow down so early,” Larson said. “I was just trying to get to the yellow line as quickly as possible and felt like I was in control, and from my vantage point, he slowed down a lot. But from there (on TV) it just looks like I bomb it in there. I just need to look at some data and see where I was relative to pit road speed and all that.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1428]
“I hate it for Ryan more than anything; he was doing a super good job out front, and his team’s been doing a really good job throughout the playoffs, and that was not my intention. I was just trying to get as close to his back bumper as I could to hopefully have a good cycle and have a better a pit stop and come out in front of him and control the race from there. Just upset more than anything with myself. Even if he did slow down, I still should have not pushed that hard. Just a bummer, and hopefully his team can recover from it.”
Blaney finished second and led 53 laps, moving above the playoff grid cutline by 10 points.
“I don’t really know what I was thinking during the initial part,” Larson said. “I was trying to stay off him as I knew I was going to probably hit him. I just locked the brakes up; I locked the fronts up and slid to the right and clipped the right side of his rear bumper, and that kind of shot me even more right into the barrels.
“I was in control of my car, I just didn’t anticipate him getting to pit road speed as early as he did.”
Larson is clinched into the championship race in two weeks after winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The No. 5 team was looking for their second consecutive win at Homestead.