After blitzing the rest of the victory contenders with a slick last-second winning move Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, Kyle Larson spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying to convince people that the race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship isn’t over.
Literally, of course, it isn’t.
Realistically, however, they can start printing those “Kyle Larson 3-Time Champion” T-shirts. It’s easy to imagine that somewhere they’re preparing championship banners to hang above the Larson pit area once the deed is done.
In the Chase, Larson has made a shambles of the NASCAR hope that the championship run might come down to the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with six or seven drivers battling within a few points of each other. Instead, the championship clinching could occur this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, which would harken back to the days when drivers sewed up the title before the last race, a result which led to the now-defunct idea of settling the championship at the final race with four drivers in a final shootout.
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“It’s so easy to look at it and be like, ‘Oh, the 5’s got it,’” Larson said. “We could go to Martinsville and there be a stack in turn 3 on the first lap. I could cave in the radiator and be done. I’m just saying there’s still a lot of racing left. So much in the Chase. All you (media) guys in here are like, ‘This person is out; this person has it locked up.’ They win or something happens, boom, the picture completely changes.
“I’m not getting ahead of myself at all. I’m not going to let you guys get me ahead of myself, either.”
This is a logical point of view for Larson to present. Never count your chickens, etc., etc.
But the numbers speak for themselves, and they’re loud. After eight Chase drivers had their worst finishes of the playoffs in Sunday’s chaos at Talladega and every other driver lost points to Larson, he shot away from the crowd like Halloween fireworks. He leads second-place Denny Hamlin by 73 points and third-place Christopher Bell by 74. The six drivers below Larson in the standings technically remain eligible for the title, but an incredible sequence of events would have to happen for anyone else to emerge with the championship.
Larson’s point lead is the largest of the Chase. This is similar to Milwaukee’s 3–0 lead in the World Series.
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Denny Hamlin (right) at Martinsville in March.
If Larson scores 59 points at Martinsville, he will lock up the championship regardless of the results of the other contenders. He has only one win at the half-mile, but he has finished in the top 10 in eight straight races there.
The last, best challenge to Larson comes from Hamlin, whose futile quest to win the Cup championship is well-documented. Hamlin rolls into Martinsville as the track’s top dog (not to be confused with the track’s famous hot dogs) with six victories, twice as many as any other active driver. He has led a staggering total of 3,014 laps at Martinsville, easily his best track in that category.
Larson’s Martinsville hopes are bolstered by Hendrick Motorsports’ long history of success there. Hendrick’s 31 victories at the speedway are the most ever by a team at an individual track. Hendrick drivers have won 13 of the past 22 Martinsville Chase races.
It’s not time for Larson to celebrate, but maybe bring in the party planners.
Mike Hembree has covered auto racing for numerous media outlets, including USA Today, NASCAR Scene, NBC Sports, The Greenville News and the SPEED Channel. He has been roaming garage areas and pit roads for decades (although the persistent rumor that he covered the first Indianapolis 500 is not true). Winner of numerous motorsports and other media awards, he also has covered virtually every other major sport. He lives near Gaffney, South Carolina and can be convinced to attend Bruce Springsteen concerts if you have tickets.