Kyle Larson is on the verge of his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championship, but he was more relieved than happy after salvaging a nearly disastrous Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
“It was a difficult race,” he said. “It was just a bummer day. It all could have been a lot worse.”
It nearly was worse for his closest Chase rivals, who missed some prime opportunities to cut into Larson’s points lead heading into the Nov. 8 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
By rallying from a backfiring strategy for a ninth-place finish at Martinsville, Larson lost only six points off his massive lead in the standings. He leads by 67 points over Christopher Bell (who finished 10th) and needs only nine points at Homestead, which is among his best tracks (with two wins in the past four races) to capture the title. Bell and Denny Hamlin, who is 70 points behind after a sixth-placed finish at Martinsville, are the only other drivers still in title contention through nine races in the Chase, the 10-race championship run that concludes the season.
While Larson had to fight for a top-10 finish Sunday, his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were cruising at the 0.526-mile track.
William Byron won for the first time since a year ago at Martinsville, and Chase Elliott made it a sweep of the top two spots for Hendrick, the winningest team in Martinsville history with 32 victories. Ty Gibbs finished third.
courtesy ESPN
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