3 times Kyle Larson’s mistake led to playoff exit, ft. ROVAL

Thirty-one races into the season, Kyle Larson is one of the top seeds going into next week's playoff race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13. The Hendrick Motorsports ace currently sits third in the playoff picture with 3100 points.

The Elk Grove native has won five races this year, and thus, seeks his second Championship title. Larson's first NASCAR Cup Series Championship came in 2021, which was also his first year with Hendrick Motorsports.

With the competition being arguably the fiercest at this point in the season, Larson just needs to stay away from mistakes and advance to the next round by winning or by gathering enough points. Throughout his career, there have been times when Larson got ousted from the playoff contention solely due to his mistakes. Let's take a look at three such instances:

1. Charlotte ROVAL, 2022

This incident happened exactly two years ago. Larson was well poised to deliver a solid finish in the playoff elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. However, he made a mistake coming off Turn 7 on lap 99. The Chevy star rammed his ride into the wall and damaged his right rear toe link. As a result, he had to commit to the pit road under green flag conditions.

"Just dumb mistake on my part," Larson said during a post-race interview (via The Athletic).

"The only thing that I could have done differently was not crash and hit the wall and break the toe link. So yeah, it’s all on me," he added.

Although Larson returned to the track on lap 104, the mistake pushed him five laps down. As a result, his hopes to advance to the next round were shattered.

2. Kansas Speedway, 2018

Despite a top-3 finish, Kyle Larson failed to qualify for the playoff semifinals. His misery stemmed from a crash during practice, which forced him to resort to his backup car and relegated him to the back of the field.

During a post-race interview reported by Motorsport, Larson, who used to drive for Chip Ganassi Racing back then, spoke to the reporters about how his car handled throughout the race.

"We were really loose," Larson explained. "We kept tightening it up until we got to a good spot, where I could run the wall comfortably. Once I was able to move up, have some sort of security up top, I was better."

3. Kyle Larson's NASCAR suspension, 2020

Kyle Larson allegedly used the 'N' word during an iRacing event at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on April 12, 2020. The then-Chip Ganassi Racing driver was fired from the team and was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR. To make things worse, Larson was suspended by iRacing as well.

Reports suggested that Kyle Larson had "violated Sections 12.1 (General Procedures) and 12.8 (NASCAR Member Conduct Guidelines)" of NASCAR's rulebook.

After the incident, several sponsors like McDonald’s and Credit One Bank parted ways with Larson's No. 42 team. Larson was reinstated on January 1, 2021 and his mistake cost him the 2020 playoffs.