Kyle Larson saw his opportunity to secure a berth in the Championship 4 in front of him on Sunday with 12 laps to go at Homestead-Miami Speedway and took it.
While battling Ryan Blaney for the lead, the two drivers had Austin Dillon, a lapped car, in front of them. Entering turn three, Larson made it three-wide in the middle in an attempt to get alongside Blaney’s No. 12 Ford.
However, the two playoff drivers made contact, which sent Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet sliding into the grass. His opportunity was gone.
“I mean you’re making split-second decisions,” Larson said after the race. “Austin (Dillon) did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as the No. 12 (Blaney) got to his inside, and maybe he’d run a lane off the wall just to give me some clean air. He continued to run his line.
“I had a little bit of a hole and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of the No. 3 and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of the No. 12 or build a run to have a shot at him in (turns) one and two. But yeah, it just didn’t work out.
“I was going as hard as I could.”
Larson and his crew endured a slow pit stop under the final caution flag afterwards, which pinned Larson down to 10th in the running order due to a diffuser flap down.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was unable to capitalize on the final restart as he finished 13th.
With Tyler Reddick’s late surge to win, Larson heads to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway seven points below the Cup Series Playoff cutline.
Martinsville is the last race for the Round of 8 driver’s to secure a berth in the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 10.
“We’ve been strong at Martinsville (Speedway) at times, so we’ll see,” Larson said. “It’s not my best track, but I’ve been a lot better there since I joined Hendrick Motorsports.
“We just need to qualify well and give it our best shot.”