The third time was not the charm for Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson, who was going for his third consecutive win at the speedway, finished 11th on Sunday afternoon. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team salvaged the afternoon after having a third rough race to start a round in the postseason.
“It’s good to get out of here with something better than we’ve had to start the first two rounds,” Larson said. “It hasn’t been easy for us in these first races, but we did a good job fighting back to get to an 11th-place finish. So, I’m happy about that and, for the most part, keeping our heads in the game.
“It could have been a lot worse.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1423]
Las Vegas was the best finish to the start a round that Larson has had. He crashed out of the first race in the Round of 16 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and was classified 37th. A flat tire at Kansas Speedway to start the Round of 12 derailed his day, and he finished 26th.
There were a few issues that hindered Larson in Las Vegas. He was one of the quickest cars to start the afternoon and finished 10th in the first stage. It ended up being the only stage point he earned.
Larson had to come back down pit road a second time before the start of the second stage for the crew to patch the lower part of the left front grille. Later in the stage, he fell a lap down when having to make a second [pit stop under green flag conditions.
During the initial stop, the rear tire changer had to return to the right side to ensure the wheel was tight. In doing so, the left rear tire was never changed, but Larson left pit road without knowing. He finished 30th in the second stage.
A caution with 74 laps to go for Ty Gibbs, who Larson had been battling for the free pass position, put Larson back on the lead lap. He admitted the day was “extremely hard” when asked about his afternoon.
“We just kind of had a bad end of the first stage, and then we had to fix the damage that I guess we had,” Larson recapped. “Then I was like, okay, we’re going to have a good day here.
“I think I got to, like, eighth, maybe before the green flag cycle, and I was like, okay, I’m much better than all these guys, and we’ll cycle in front of them and probably finish the stage somewhere in third or fourth, and then we have the biggest mess of a pit stop that I think I’ve ever seen and that was just unfortunate.
“Thankfully, I didn’t go two laps down. Then, I had to fight, got a break with the lucky dog there, and got the most of what we had there at the end.”
Through it all, Larson increased his gap on the cutline. It was by two points, however. Larson is 35 points above the cutline with two races left in the Round of 8.