This was objectively decisive.
Kyle Larson responded to his only real setback in the Chase for the Championship at Phoenix with his first career victory on a superspeedway at Talladega while also scoring the most stage points of everyone else.
Meanwhile, practically everyone chasing him in the standings were involved in incidents, and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 team looked like a team ready to accept the Bill France Cup for the third time in six years.
It could happen as soon as next week at Martinsville, and one week before the finale at Homestead-Miami, with Larson only needing to score three points more than everyone else and that’s that.
If Larson has a 77-point lead next week, it’s over. If he has a 76-point lead over everyone and Chase Briscoe is further back than that, it’s over. Briscoe would have to win out and tie Larson to even win a tie breaker, which is based on wins in The Chase for the Championship.
Kyle Larson celebrates with team in Victory Lane, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Karl Anderson Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s over, even if Larson doesn’t want to take it yet.
“Yeah, I don't know,” Larson said. “There's still two races. It's so easy to look at it and be like, ‘Oh, the 5's got it.’ We could go to Martinsville, there's a stack-up in Turn 3 on the first lap. I could cave in the radiator and be done.
“All you guys in (the media center) 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.”
Okay, sure, but to put this in perspective, there are now only seven mathematically eligible drivers and their scenarios require a lot of Turn 3 stack-ups plus them winning.
Kyle Larson
Denny Hamlin -73
Christopher Bell -74
Chase Briscoe -79
Joey Logano -100
Ryan Blaney -107
Tyler Reddick -126
Is Hamlin done?
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Hamlin said. “The 5 is on a massive run at the right time of the year,” he said. “If you asked me at the start of the day if I would take an eighth, I mean, probably. “So, it’s just what we’ve got. It’s disappointing, but also like our day could have been a shit ton worse. We didn’t get stage points. We tried. But it’s just a lot of games going on. It’s really, really hard, tough to do it.”
Hamlin is referencing the armada of Chevrolets that protected track position for Larson throughout the race on Sunday. William Byron especially was committed to pushing Larson to as many stage points as possible.
Kyle Larson wins, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Ross Chastain, a lap down but leading the outside lane, effectively played jammer ahead of those behind him. Chastain ultimately pushed Larson to the win.
In a way, Chastain leading the outside lane contributed to the second big crash that wiped out several contenders including Joey Logano, not that he took exception to it.
“It’s a race,” Logano said. “Everyone has a right to go racing. He’s racing for himself as well. I don’t know. Was he one down? He was on the lead lap, so it wasn’t his fault that we wrecked. I don’t think you can really blame it on anyone.
“It’s just what speedway racing is these days. It really sucks at times. At times it’s pretty awesome and at times you end up on your lid and you say it sucks. I don’t know. I like Martinsville.”
Whatever chance everyone else had at winning this championship required fully capitalizing on these past two races, Larson’s two worst tracks. He conceded he sucked at Phoenix and has never won a superspeedway race.
None of Larson’s closest pursuers won at Phoenix and practically all of them crashed at Talladega when he finally won on a superspeedway.
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“It’s on life support,” Blaney said of his title hopes. “That’s for sure, but you never know. It definitely doesn’t help. That’s something we couldn’t afford to have today and unfortunately it happened, so we’ll just have to go show up next week and try to do the best we can.”
Ultimately, this is the weekend where Larson won the championship, and crew chief Cliff Daniels did his part to quickly turn the page on the Phoenix disaster.
“I walked in on Monday and owned it completely,” Daniels said. “It's on me for the setup we had in the car. I thought there was more that could translate from our good setup at Gateway to Phoenix than what reality shows for that tire and that track.”
Daniels said that he was proud of his driver and team for their efforts to do the best they could with the decision he made for them.
“Once we kind of got through the disappointment we had on a Monday, we spent more time probably laughing and having fun preparing for Talladega this week than we've had in a long time,” Daniels said. “The spirit of the team was up. Everybody was positive.
“I've said this quote a couple times after the race already, but a smooth sea does not make for a skilled sailor.
“Even when you have those times of difficulty and the sea is rough, that's when you have a good group of people that are willing to dig in and work together and believe in each other and the process that we built, and the team exercise that we continue to build on every week, there's a lot of power in that. When you can unite and identify with that. I'm proud of the 5 team doing that this week and showing up prepared for this weekend.”
That’s how they always are, Larson said, and this sort of steadiness is why they are about to win their third championship in six years.
“We don't do much celebrating whether we win, and we don't get too down when we have rough races either,” Larson said. “When you look at a lot of different championship organizations and teams throughout many different sports, I think that's a common theme that you see. It's led by Cliff and his leadership.
“It's just what we've always been like. I think we're just really good at refocusing on what's ahead and not getting too far ahead or behind of what we need to accomplish.”