Larson Wins at Richmond; Ties Truex, Jr. With Fourth Victory

The drivers who needed to win the final race of the regular season at the Richmond Raceway made valiant efforts on Saturday night to get into NASCAR’s playoffs. But the familiar faces that have been in the Top 16 for much of the season on points — Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth — are the same ones who will advance to the first round.

In a wild finish, Kyle Larson took the lead during a pit stop in overtime, vaulting past Martin Truex, Jr. The regular season champion, Truex, Jr. hit the wall on the final lap after leading the most laps and earning his 17th stage win.

Truex, Jr. enters the playoffs with the most bonus points — 53. The runner-up in the regular season standings, Chevy driver Larson will have 33 bonus points after tying Truex, Jr. for most victories this season with his fourth.

Despite winning the pole and leading most of the first stage, Kenseth almost didn’t make it to the postseason that begins next weekend at the Chicagoland Speedway. He eked into the elite group of 16 as the last driver after a bizarre incident at the entrance of the pit road.

With 143 laps remaining, an ambulance stopped and nearly blocked the pit road during a caution as all the leaders pitted. The ensuing fender-bender among the race leaders left Kenseth with a broken radiator. He went from eighth place and comfortably positioned to advance to being parked behind wall and out of the race within minutes.

Kenseth had to sweat out watching Erik Jones, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Daniel Suarez try to advance by winning. Out of the points, they could have leap-frogged Kenseth and forced him out of the Top 16 with a victory.

Jones came the closest of those who needed a win to get in. The late caution he needed that put the race into overtime gave him an opportunity to restart in fourth place. But the rookie missed a shift on the final green flag.

“We would have needed to bully our way to get to the front,” Jones said. “But I missed third gear.”

In his final season, Earnhardt, Jr. failed to make the playoffs. His Chevy ran well, but his team needed to gamble on trying to catch a late caution as the race leader.

“If the caution comes out we would have had the track position we needed,” he said.

Earnhardt, Jr., who ran in the Top 10 at times, said he liked the strategy and that his car would have been capable of staying in the front.

“It was great to be running among the leaders,” he said.

In addition to the three drivers advancing on points, others who will vie for the championship include four drivers who also claimed multiple victories: Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Denny Hamlin. Drivers advancing with single victories are Kevin Harvick, Dave Blaney, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon and Kasey Kahne.

Although he had already clinched the regular season championship with one race remaining and the 15 playoff bonus points that go with it, Truex, Jr. was not in a celebratory mood. Fellow Toyota driver Hamlin forced him into the wall in Turn 1 on the white flag lap.

“Tonight was tough,” said Truex, Jr., who blew a tire last week at the Darlington Raceway while leading with three laps to go. “It’s a little hard to get excited.”

The sloppy performance of the safety crew — where the ambulance driver rolled onto the track without getting orders to move from the NASCAR officials in the tower — nearly decided who would advance. As it was, Bowyer was the driver ahead of Kenseth and suffered rear end damage in the pit road traffic jam. Logano, also desperately looking for a victory, suffered damage to the front of his car.

Unlike other major series such as the Indy Racing League or National Hot Rod Association, America’s most successful racing series continues to rely on local crews to respond in the case of a crash at Monster Energy NASCAR Cup races. Due to the dangers posed by safety vehicles entering a race track during an event, a regular crew reduces the prospect of an incident that is injurious or one that adversely affects a pivotal event such as Saturday night’s race.

Kenseth responded with class after climbing from his car in the garage.

“It was an accordion effect and I just couldn’t get stopped,” he said.

He pointed out that he and his team had slipped backwards due to chassis issues by time the incident took place. “We lost the handle on it and shouldn’t have been back there anyway.”