As it turns out, Kyle Larson is human. The NASCAR champion and three-time Michigan winner led the most laps of the Sunday-Monday rain delayed doubleheader, a race high 41. Yet, he finished Monday in the garage as a spectator.
On lap 117, just after a peculiar caution where David Gilliland, Joey Logano, and AJ Allmendinger all bizarrely suffered flat tires on the same lap, Larson found himself in 11th place, charging hard to pick up some stage points as Stage 2 neared its end. Unfortunately, Larson ensured that Stage 2 would end under caution, but not in the way he intended.
As Larson barreled into Turn 4, he lost control and went for a solo spin. Bubba Wallace, right behind him, made contact with Larson’s car, followed by a collision with Gilliland. Last year’s winner, Chris Buescher, and Christopher Bell also got caught up in the melee. And just like that, Larson’s day was done, with Gilliland and Bell joining him in the garage.
The driver who has seemingly won in every race car with four wheels reminded us all that even the best can make mistakes.
“Yeah, I just messed up,” he said. “You try to get all you can on restarts. I was just trying to funnel myself up the racetrack. I didn’t want to get stuck on the bottom three-wide. Just got myself in an awkward aero spot and lost it. It’s unfortunate. I made a mistake and cost ourselves a lot of points today.”
Larson did confess to feeling a sense of foreboding as he approached the turn.
“Yeah, I mean you get a little bit of warning right before you start spinning,” he said. “But once these Next Gen cars step out, it’s really hard to save it. I was just doing what I thought would be right to funnel our way up and just put myself in bad spot.”
Part of the issue was that Larson had opted for four fresh tires, while many of his competitors ahead took only two. This left him deeper in the field, forcing him to push hard to regain lost ground. That aggressive charge ultimately led to his untimely spin and early exit. Despite the outcome, Larson stood by his strategy.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “If I would have just done a better job of executing the right way on that first lap, I think we would have ended up fine. Similar to the first stage, Chase (Elliott) was the first on four (tires) and did a really good job to make it up to second. I was hopeful that I could make the right decisions and have that work out, but I just messed up.”
Even champions have their off days, and for Kyle Larson, Monday was one of those days where the margin for error proved too slim.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.