“You just can’t have 2 bad races”: Kyle Larson refuses to criticize NASCAR’s playoff format after crushing Martinsville elimination

The last race of the NASCAR playoff wrapped up shattering four drivers' dreams, including Hendrick Motorsport's Kyle Larson. He finished third in the race behind his teammate Chase Elliott. Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney won the race, taking the lead from Larson in lap 477.

After his crushing exit from the race to the championship, in a post-race interview with Frontstrech, the Hendrick Motorsports driver refused to criticize NASCAR's playoff format. He has the most wins (six) this season than any other driver, and the interviewer asked him if he would like to get some reward for the wins.

"No, I mean, not necessarily. I felt like, you know, we had a lot of bonus points when we had twenty more than the next guy to start this round. We just had two unfortunate, you know, races," stated Larson.

The #5 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver recalled his races in Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami Speedway. He finished in P15 in the South Point 400 race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway due to a delayed tire change in the pits.

In the Straight Talk Wireless 400 race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kyle Larson faced a series of hurdles. Despite a solid start from P2, he got smashed into the wall after his rear right tire went down, causing him a significant drop in standings. He finished the race in P13 in the second race of the round of eight, affecting his chances to advance to the Championship 4 round. He recalled the mishaps and added:

"I don't want to say there's anything wrong with the format; we just had, you just can't have, you know, two bad races in the round of eight."

The Hendrick Motorsports driver is now officially out of the Championship 4 round scheduled for November 3, 2024, at the Phoneix Raceway.

---

Xfinity Star was baffled after Kyle Larson failed to punch his ticket for the Championship 4 round

Kyle Larson ran his 20th race at Martinsville Speedway in the Xfinity 500. He has amassed six wins this season, yet he will not be part of the top four drivers racing for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sage Karam faced a hard time digesting the fact that the former Cup Series champion with two wins in the round of 12 got ruled out in the final race of the playoffs. The 2013 Indy NXT champion mentioned that he found this "hard to process" and added:

“Wild that Larson isn’t running for a championship after a year like he had. Sometimes I understand the playoffs but this one is hard to process honestly.”

However, Kyle Larson's teammate William Byron made it to the final race for the championship. Christopher Bell finished in P18 and secured his ticket to the final round, but a few moments later NASCAR officials disqualified him for executing a Hail Melon-style move.

This sparked another controversy, and NASCAR VP Elton Sawyer had to publicly clarify the reason behind the decision.