"The wrong guy wins": Bubba Wallace's spotter judges Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin's 'awful' day as Joey Logano scripts NASCAR history

Bubba Wallace's spotter Freddie Kraft has commented on Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin's miserable day at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Both drivers suffered from lackluster pitstops which heavily impacted a potentially promising result. Meanwhile, Team Penske's Joey Logano mastered a fuel-saving strategy to place his #22 Ford in the victory lane, punch his Championship 4 ticket, and become the lone driver to make six final race appearances.

The South Point 400 turned tumultuous for the Hendrick Motorsports ace and Joe Gibbs Racing's 54-time Cup race winner. The first setback occurred early in the race when Larson rear-ended Hamlin as a stack-up ensued ahead of them. But their worsening day was far from over, as they suffered from a botched pitstop.

The #11 JGR driver had a couple of sluggish pit stops, with the first stop totaling 13.4 seconds, plummeting Hamlin from fifth to 14th in an instant. Another setback transpired in the final stage when the left rear wheel wasn't tightened but the driver was signaled to exit the pits. As a result, he steered back to address it, costing him valuable seconds again. The final blow came in the form of a missing tire weight which induced vibrations in his NextGen car. The disastrous turnaround resulted in a P8 finish for Hamlin.

Kyle Larson suffered from a slow pitstop on Lap 125. The #5 Chevy driver's crew failed to remove lug nuts and prematurely took off the jack, shattering his revival after an additional pitstop during Stage 2 dropped his track positions.

Bubba Wallace's spotter commented on Larson and Hamlin's 'awful' day, outlining that the "wrong guy" winning can change the outlook of the playoffs. He said.

"Larson kind of just drive into Denny, gave himself nose damage, gave damage to Denny and then they both had just awful days on pit road. Larson still to the good he had a big enough cushion coming in. Like we said, 'One bad race will put you in and the wrong guy wins,' and now couple of dominoes fall the wrong way," Kraft said via Dirty Mo Media.

Despite the setback, Kyle Larson's P11 finish has kept him above the bubble with a 35-point buffer, while Denny Hamlin is below and is shy of 27 points.

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"We'll assess it and learn from it": Kyle Larson reflects on his disappointing Las Vegas weekend

The #5 Chevy Camaro driver posted the fifth-fastest during the qualifying, setting the stage for a dominant finish. However, things went south during Stage 1 and reduced Larson to a tenth-place finish.

The second stage was worse as a slow pitstop cost valuable time and thwarted Kyle Larson from grabbing stage points, stooping the 2021 Cup Series champion to a 30th-place finish.

However, the HMS ace survived all the unfavorable odds and rallied back, settling in 11th and keeping his title fight alive. Still, he wasn't pleased with how his 34th race weekend turned out.

"I make a lot more mistakes than the rest of our team does. Yeah, that allows me to be calm and all that. So, yeah, it was a bit of a mess, but we'll assess it and learn from it. And it'll never happen again. I know that," Larson said via Bob Pockrass on X.

Kyle Larson is placed third in the playoffs but his six wins and numerous top-5 and 10s have put his #5 Chevy second in the overall Cup Series rankings.