Kyle Larson Takes Overtime Win In Richmond

Kyle Larson wins at Richmond
Gregg Ellman/Chevy Racing

Kyle Larson snuck out of Richmond Raceway with a surprise victory in Saturday night's Federated Auto Parts 400 in the final race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular season.

Larson led the final three laps of a green-white-checkered overtime finish to secure his fourth win of the year, tying Martin Truex, Jr. – who saw his chances for his fifth victory go up in smoke after he and Denny Hamlin crashed on the final lap.

Joey Logano finished second, but fell one spot shy of the making the cutoff for the playoffs. Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Larson, who had only recorded one prior top five finish at Richmond with a runner-up finish in this same race a year ago, notched his fifth-career Cup Series victory and secured the second seed for the start of the Cup Series playoffs behind Truex, Jr.

"I've got the greatest team out here and definitely the best pit crew," Larson said. "That showed tonight. I can't thank those guys enough. They were money all night long to gain spots. This win is a huge congrats to them. The Target Chevy was pretty good all night. The No. 78 (Truex) was definitely the best, but I thought I was second best for most of the runs.

"It came down to the last restart there, and I got a good start. I spun my tires pretty bad, and I was a little nervous, but we cleared him (Truex) into (Turn) 1, and I was pretty excited about that. I'm really pumped for the playoffs. We've got a great shot at the championship, I feel like, this year. So I'm looking forward to it."

Kyle Larson crosses the finish line for his fourth Cup Series win of the season
Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

Larson's improbable victory was the culmination of a bizarre series of events that unfolded over the last 140 laps in what had been shaping up to be an anti-climatic battle for the final spots in the 16-driver playoff field, with drivers at the front and rear of the championship hunt jockeying to secure their positions.

Truex, Jr. had led 198 laps of the scheduled 400-lap distance and looked to be on cruise control in the waning laps of the race when Derrike Cope brought out the caution flag with four laps to go.

The yellow flag brought the field to pit road and Larson's crew got the no. 42 Chevrolet out in front of Truex, Jr. and Hamlin for the final restart in a three-lap dash to the checkered flag.

On the restart, Larson quickly jumped out in front by ten car lengths as Truex and Hamlin duked it out for second place.

Just after the white flag, Hamlin and Truex made contact going into turn one, sending Truex nearly head-on into the outside wall. Hamlin was able to keep his car straight and limped home to finish fifth while Truex settled for 20th as the race ended under caution.

"We drove in really, really deep (in turn one) and when I got on the brakes, the splitter slammed down into the ground and shot me up the track into him," said Hamlin. "But it's unfortunate. Didn't want to get into him. He's a great teammate of ours.

"We struggled all day, definitely not a car that could contend. We were trying to make it better, but it was just getting worse and worse. It was a miserable day actually. They tell me I'm a hero around here. Today I was a clown."

It was a rather inglorious finish for Truex, grudgingly accepted the regular-season championship trophy after clinching last weekend at Darlington.

"I wish we could have got the trophy last weekend. Yeah, I mean, tonight sucks, plain and simple, just the way it ended up," said Truex, Jr. "Tonight is a little tough, it's a little hard to be excited."

The 16-drivers who make the field for this year's Cup Series playoffs
Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Truex took the number one seed in the Cup Series playoffs which begin next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway – the start of 10 races to decide the 2017 championship.

With the top seed already decided before the race even began, all eyes were on the four drivers vying for the final spots in the 16-driver field, as Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray were all on the bubble with Clint Bowyer, Erik Jones and Joey Logano hoping for a miracle to get themselves in the playoffs.

And while all Elliott, Kenseth and McMurray had to do nose was race the track and keep their noses clean to make the championship field, it was a bizarre incident under caution that nearly threw the playoff picture into chaos.

Danica Patrick and Austin Dillon made contact on lap 260 to bring out the fifth yellow flag of the night, but during the ensuing caution an ambulance rolled out onto the track and stopped just short of the pit road entrance while the entire field was coming into the pits.

The resulting bottleneck caused an accordion effect the saw several cars run into each other, including Kenseth, who ran into the back of Bowyer and punched out his own radiator, sending Kenseth to the garage.

Kenseth then had to spend the rest of the race sweating it out, holding out hope that another unique winner didn't take the checkered flag – a scenario that would have eliminated him from the playoffs.

In the end, Kenseth made the cutoff by 88 points over Bowyer, taking the 16th and final spot behind McMurray.

"I saw an ambulance sitting there," Kenseth said. "It was an accordion effect and I just couldn't get stopped. I shouldn't have been back there to start with and maybe I wouldn't have gotten in a wreck."

Among the drivers who missed the cut for a shot at the title was Logano, who needed a win to qualify for the playoffs due to his win earlier this year at Richmond being encumbered and not counting toward making the 16-driver field.

"Obviously it stings to come up one spot short and not be able to get into the playoffs," said Logano. "It is what it is. It's reality, and we will move on."

Also missing out on the playoffs is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who will be retiring at the end of this season. Earnhardt, Jr. needed a win to qualify and ended his night 13th, and will finish out his Cup Series career without a championship.

RACE RESULTS

Pos. # Driver Make Start Laps Led Status Points Playoff Points
1 42 Kyle Larson Chevy 4 404 53 Running 54 33
2 22 Joey Logano Ford 12 404 0 Running 47 0
3 31 Ryan Newman Chevy 27 404 4 Running 36 5
4 41 Kurt Busch Ford 3 404 0 Running 37 5
5 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 2 404 0 Running 32 13
6 77 Erik Jones Toyota 10 404 0 Running 43 0
7 19 Daniel Suarez Toyota 16 404 0 Running 30 0
8 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevy 20 404 0 Running 29 17
9 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 7 404 38 Running 39 29
10 24 Chase Elliott Chevy 9 404 0 Running 29 6
11 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 15 404 9 Running 32 19
12 5 Kasey Kahne Chevy 17 404 0 Running 25 5
13 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 21 404 13 Running 28 0
14 1 Jamie McMurray Chevy 11 404 0 Running 23 3
15 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 6 404 0 Running 25 15
16 95 Michael McDowell Chevy 28 404 0 Running 21 0
17 43 Aric Almirola Ford 23 404 0 Running 20 0
18 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 14 404 0 Running 19 8
19 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 8 404 0 Running 18 10
20 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 5 403 198 Accident 33 53
21 3 Austin Dillon Chevy 31 403 0 Running 16 5
22 13 Ty Dillon Chevy 32 403 0 Running 15 0
23 10 Danica Patrick Ford 19 403 0 Running 14 0
24 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 13 403 0 Running 21 0
25 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 18 402 0 Running 12 0
26 47 AJ Allmendinger Chevy 22 402 0 Running 11 0
27 38 David Ragan Ford 29 402 0 Running 10 0
28 27 Paul Menard Chevy 26 402 0 Running 9 0
29 83 Corey Lajoie Toyota 33 400 0 Running 8 0
30 55 Reed Sorenson Chevy 36 400 0 Running 7 0
31 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 25 400 0 Running 6 0
32 37 Chris Buescher Chevy 24 400 0 Running 5 0
33 72 Cole Whitt Chevy 35 396 0 Running 4 0
34 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevy 37 395 0 Running 3 0
35 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 34 393 0 Running 2 0
36 15 Derrike Cope Chevy 38 388 0 Running 1 0
37 51 BJ McLeod Chevy 39 318 0 Transmission 0 0
38 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 1 257 89 Accident 17 5
39 34 Landon Cassill Ford 30 33 0 Accident 1 0

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