No one can say Kyle Larson didn’t give it his all in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He charged from fourth to second in the closing laps, and smashed into the wall on the final lap. Tyler Reddick was collected in the melee, but somehow, neither lost any positions.
Larson was ripping the top, trying to pull off a similar feat to his protégé Corey Day in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly race, where he surged by Carson Kvapil for the win.
Unfortunately for Larson, he lost traction at the exit of Turn 4 and snapped up into the wall, heavily damaging the right-side of his No. 5 Kyle Busch tribute car. Reddick ran into the back of him, and spun off into the infield. However, Larson kept the throttle down and dragged his wounded Chevrolet across the line in second, while Reddick journeyed through the grass and pit lane to finish third.
Neither driver lost any positions as a result of the dramatic wreck.
Both drivers also had to fight back from misfortune, with Larson coming back from one lap down to early handling woes and Reddick having to deal with alternator issues.
Watch: Briscoe wins Las Vegas nail-biter as Larson, Reddick tangle late
“We had a good green flag pit cycle, and I could tell I was gaining on him [Briscoe] pretty quickly,” recalled Larson. “I just tried to stay patient, but my tires were getting kind of burnt off by the time I got there. I did what I could to try and win. We did a decent job with it, but I was just trying to push it through (turns) three and four to build some momentum at him and try to get by him down the straightaway. I just got really loose and overcorrected it into the wall.
“Thankfully, I was able to limp it home. It got exciting, for sure. I wish I could have won in this paint scheme while honoring Kyle because that would have been in very Kyle Busch fashion, but again, it was a great fight by this team.”
Speaking to a media scrum featuring Motorsport.com, Larson said of his thought process in those final laps: “I thought the top might be there but I didn’t want to do it too soon and burn my tires off. I tried to wait and felt like I did it at the right time. Just tried to push as hard as I could down the straightaway to build a run, and just got loose.”
Reddick spent most of his half-spin in the infield grass, but actually crossed the finish line while on pit road. NASCAR confirmed there was no penalty because of how he reached pit road and he will keep the third-place finish.
“That pretty much sums up what today was like,” said Reddick of the last-lap incident. “Just one thing after another for us. Just really proud of everyone’s effort on this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry. We didn’t lose a lap changing the battery there, and we able to drive back to the front – it just took too long. It put us in a spot where we had to be perfect on that final run, and unfortunately, we had some more mistakes and we came out behind the 5 [Larson] after we got by him in the first part of that run.
“I think ultimately that was the difference. If we could have stayed ahead of him leaving pit road, I think we get to those cars first and maybe don’t burn up as much. I think we could have won today.”
Tyler Reddick spins, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota; Kyle Larson crashes, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Marc Sanchez of Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Watch: Reddick after holding on to third: ‘We fought through everything’
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