DARLINGTON, S.C.: Putting it on the line on the last lap of Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Kyle Larson went full video game mode in a last ditch effort to steal the victory from Denny Hamlin.
Larson’s bold move fell short of its intentions and came up 0.212-seconds short of his sixth NASCAR Cup Series win of the season.
Larson dominated Sunday’s Cup Playoff opener leading five times for 156 laps, but a pit stop deep into Stage 3 slightly shifted the momentum of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro.
During routine green flag pit stops, a slow stop allowed Ross Chastain to overtake Larson for track position on track, however, a caution before the end of the pit cycle would shuffle strategy and the running order – including sending Chastain, Larson and others back to pit road.
Martin Truex Jr. won the race off pit road but was caught speeding handing the lead to Hamlin.
With Larson on the heels of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver for the restart, he struggled in dirty air and lacked the grip he needed and eventual space and respect from lap traffic to put himself on the bumper of Hamlin.
Until the last lap.
A throwback to Carl Edwards last lap video game attempt pass on Jimmie Johnson at Kansas Speedway in 2008, Larson sailed his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into Turn 3, rode the wall through Turn 4 and took the checkered flag with an entire flattened right side race car.
Knowing his Hail Mary attempt on the last lap was unlikely to pay off, Larson admitted he gave everything he had.
“Yeah. I kind of — we got to the white, and I was like, well, I haven’t been able to gain on him now, I’m going to try something,” said Larson. “Honestly got to his bumper too quick. I was hoping he was going to run that diamond to kind of be safe and I could skirt to his outside, but gave everything I had.”
Larson said he didn’t want to crash Hamlin for the Playoff win and a guaranteed spot in the Round of 12 but get enough momentum from the attempt to carry him to the outside of Hamlin’s car.
“I didn’t want to wreck him,” explained Larson. “I just wanted to try to get to his outside there, but he did a great job not really making any mistakes during the last run, and I was having to push really hard in second to try and just stay with him.”
The Elk Grove, Calif. native said he was hoping that in the closing laps, lap traffic would become a factor, but that failed to materialize.
“Was hoping we’d catch some sort of traffic, but we never really did. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really good out front, just in traffic I would get stuck. Like in traffic I just got stuck really bad.”
While having one of the dominant cars of the race, Larson said losing control of the race in Stage 3 during pit stops kept them from another trip to Victory Lane.
“Then there at the end losing control of the race really hurt us, but all-in-all a great day, good points day,” he said. “Pit crew did great. Cliff (Daniels) made some good changes in the car, so try again next week.”
With his 15th top-five of the 2021 Cup Series season in the bank, Larson sits atop of the championship standings, 34 points ahead of Hamlin.
However, with Hamlin’s win at Darlington on Sunday night, Hamlin leads Larson in the Playoff grid with two races remaining in the Round of 16.
Overall, the 28-year-old is pleased with the start of his championship run.
“It’s good to get a good start,” sounded Larson. “I think everybody’s, you know, nervous getting ready for the final 10 and just the anticipation of how it’s going to go.
“So good to get a good first week in and build some momentum and some confidence within the team, so hopefully go to Richmond, be a little bit better than we were earlier in the year.”
In April, Larson finished a disappointing 18th after starting sixth.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
