Kyle Larson, who led the field to the green flag in the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday, fell to 14th by lap 3 before working his way into the top lane. With two-wide racing throughout the field, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet ZL1 worked his way back up to third during a round of green-flag pit stops at lap 37. But a return trip to pit road during a lap-40 caution period forced Larson to restart 23rd with 20 laps to go in stage one. Some daring three-wide moves allowed him to gain multiple positions, and Larson dodged a multi-car accident on the backstretch on lap 62. Under caution, he finished stage one in ninth.
Stage two began with Larson sixth. Again, he was shuffled out of the pack, but the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion worked his way into the lead by lap 125. He fell back to ninth the next lap and would finish the stage on lap 130 in that position.
After visiting pit road several times during the break for new tires and to top off the No. 5 entry’s fuel cell, Larson restarted 16th with 63 laps to go. As the field approached the tri-oval on lap 151, several cars spun in front of Larson but he was able to slow his Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 enough to narrowly avoid the carnage.
Larson restarted 16th with 41 laps to go and began to charge through the field. He was scored ninth on lap 175 and third with 18 laps to go. But the 29-year-old driver was shuffled back to 10th with 10 laps to go before he was involved in a crash that ended his race one lap later.
Quoting Kyle Larson
“It’s disappointing. I had a run there on the No. 4 (car driven by Kevin Harvick). I didn’t realize how close he was to the No. 17 (car driven by Chris Buescher). I got to [Harvick] right as he was getting to [Buescher] and it got him out of shape. I hate that I did that. It’s so hard see in front of [the car ahead of you], especially on the straightaway like that.
“I didn’t realize how close he was to him and it just got him all jacked up. I hate that it ended our day, as well as a bunch of others. Our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast.”
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