Kyle Larson, the No. 1 seed in NASCAR’s Cup Playoffs, barely had time to blink before disaster struck at Atlanta Sunday. Starting sixth, Larson—who had already led an impressive 440 laps at this track in previous races—looked poised to assert his dominance. By lap 43, he was already eyeing the lead, nipping at the heels of Ryan Blaney.
But then, in a moment that can only be described as the cruel hand of fate, Larson’s day unraveled faster than a cheap suit in a rainstorm. On lap 55, as he entered Turn 2 in third place, his Chevrolet inexplicably snapped to the right, sending him hurtling into the outside wall. The impact was devastating, turning his race car into a mangled heap of metal and ending his race on the spot.
“I’m OK,” Larson said. “Thankfully everything held up well inside the car. That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it. I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner. And then I was pretty far around the corner and it just stepped out. I don’t know… it all just happened really fast.”
Larson added he wasn’t sure what had launched him into the outside wall.
“It just got loose, and when you’re spinning or getting ready to spin, you have to turn right,” he said. “I just overcorrected, I guess. It’s just a bummer. We’ll see how everything kind of shakes out after today; go onto Watkins Glen and try to have a good day.”
And as if Larson’s bad luck weren’t enough, last week’s surprise Darlington winner, Chase Briscoe, also saw his race go up in smoke—literally. Charging into the cloud of debris, Briscoe collided with Larson’s crippled Chevy, effectively destroying his Ford and his hopes for the day.
Both drivers walked away unscathed, but for Larson, it’s just another chapter in his Atlanta horror story. In five of the last six races here, he’s ended up crashing out—a streak that would make even the most stoic driver want to throw his helmet.
Now, for the Playoffs, there’s a mix of good news and bad news. The good news? Larson’s regular-season performance and points should be enough to see him through to the next round, albeit with a few more gray hairs. The bad news? Briscoe, who barely scraped into the Playoffs, now faces the harsh reality that only a win will keep his unlikely championship dreams alive. And with the competition as fierce as it is, he might as well be trying to catch lightning in a bottle.
“That’s NASCAR,” Briscoe said. “You can be on top one week and you can be at the very bottom of the mountain the next week. It’s unfortunate. I thought our car was an adjustment away from being pretty good.
“It was a big hit. One of the biggest hits I’ve had in a long time. I’m glad I’m alright and we just have to go win. That’s what we had to do at Darlington and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" 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, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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