NASCAR at Texas results: Kyle Larson wins playoff Cup race amid a flurry of cautions

NASCAR’s regular season champion will contend for a postseason championship. Kyle Larson will be one of four drivers racing for a trophy at Phoenix.

Larson won Sunday’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, the first race in the Round of 8, by overcoming multiple late-lap cautions as playoff drama unfolded around him.

William Byron finished second. Christopher Bell finished in third.

Stage 3

A caution-filled final stage at Texas included multiple playoff driver hits, flames and a red-flagged race.

Joey Logano suffered an engine issue with just over 30 laps remaining to force his early exit. After the race restarted, contact between Kyle Busch and Chris Buescher set off a spin further back in the pack. Anthony Alfredo checked up and went sliding into the outside wall. His car quickly became engulfed in flames after coming to a stop. Alfredo walked away from the wreckage, but the race was red-flagged for 15 minutes.

The field then ran three-wide once under green as playoff drivers Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin battled alongside Kevin Harvick for the spot, but Hamlin cut a tire after contact with Blaney, and went sliding down the track. He hit the nose of his No. 11 Toyota on the inside wall and was forced to make a long stop. The race restarted with 16 laps to go, but the challenges weren’t over for Joe Gibbs Racing drivers.

Martin Truex Jr. made slight contact with Daniel Suárez to hit the outside wall and destroy his No. 19 Toyota. He joined Logano as a playoff driver watching the end of the race from the sidelines. Hamlin was then hit in the final laps as Buescher spun into the inside wall hard. Hamlin nursed his car to an 11th place finish, while Larson held the lead through the final seven restarts and eventually through the checkered flag. Larson earned his eighth win of the 2021 season.

“I knew we’d have a good shot to win today and our car was amazing,” Larson said on NBC. “I mean, that’s probably the best 550 (horsepower) package, intermediate car we’ve had all year.”

He credited the pushes from behind with giving him the advantage on the restarts, and said that he stayed on the throttle to allow him to barely clear the cars around him going into Turn 1.

“Thanks to William (Byron), Tyler (Reddick), Brad Keselowski,” Larson said about the drivers who rotated on his bumper for the many late restarts. “Anybody who was ever behind me, especially Brad on that last restart. Just awesome to win and hope we can get some more wins throughout the rest of the year.”

Stage 2

Non-playoff drivers were a presence in the top five during the second stage, especially Byron and Harvick. Both drivers were eliminated from the postseason during the prior race at the Charlotte Roval, but they recovered with strong runs at Texas. Byron finished in second place while Harvick finished in fourth behind Blaney in third at the end of Stage 2.

The stage win belonged to Larson.

Larson, the Texas All-Star race winner, led 97 of the first 210 laps (257 laps of 334 total). JGR drivers Busch, Hamlin and Truex struggled to match the pace of the top-running Hendrick Motorsports cars of Larson and Byron.

Chase Elliott also wasn’t able to catch up with his teammates. He started the race at the back of the field due to multiple inspection failures and reported vibration during the second stage. He pit for his team to change a tire that was about to go down, but a caution flew shortly after as he was running a lap down. Elliott took the wave-around along with Logano. They finished Stage 2 in 12th and 15th, respectively, the lowest of the eight remaining playoff drivers. Elliott finished the race in seventh.

Stage 1

Texas looked like Talladega with the “Big One” coming around 30 laps into the first stage. Bubba Wallace took responsibility for the mid-pack wreck on the backstretch that involved 15 cars, the most cars collected in a single wreck at the Fort Worth track.

Kyle Busch was the only playoff driver of those involved in the accident, and his No. 18 Toyota suffered minimal damage. Busch was running mid-pack after NASCAR hit him with a penalty for speeding on pit road. Busch made a second stop at that point, and the team was able to stretch its fuel to the end of the stage while other leaders pitted. Busch won the first stage, but he was frustrated with his equipment through the later stages, comparing his car to a monster truck at one point. He finished in eighth.

After the latest race, Blaney (+17), Hamlin (+9) and Busch (+8) sit above the four-driver playoff cutline to advance to the finale along with Larson. Elliott (-8), Keselowski (-15), Truex (-22) and Logano (-43) are below the cutoff. Two races remain in the Round of 8, with the next race set for next Sunday (3 p.m. on NBCSN) at Kansas.

Final results

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