NASCAR takeaways: Kyle Larson finally wins at Darlington in playoff opener
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Kyle Larson earned the first victory of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Sunday night by leading the final 55 laps at Darlington Raceway, launching him into the second round.
But for Larson, winning while riding a 17-race winless streak was just as big for his mojo as it is for the postseason.
"It's just good to get a win and hopefully we can build on this and put together some solid weeks back to back to back," Larson said. "It's been a long time since we put together a few good weeks in a row.
"We've got some really good tracks for us in the playoffs [and] a good opportunity to just gain some momentum and it helps starting at Darlington with a win. It's not been the most stress-free year for us, but we've been through a lot and we've overcome a lot. We're battle tested and ready for what the next nine weeks throw at us."
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NASCAR's playoff system features three-race rounds with the four drivers who are winless in the round being eliminated. Several playoff drivers – including Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Christopher Bell – stumbled, but they have races at Kansas and Bristol remaining in the opening round.
Here are the takeaways from the playoff opener where Larson crossed the finish line ahead of six other playoff drivers – Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace.
Larson Finally Darlington Winner
The Hendrick Motorsports driver had come close at Darlington, having finished runner-up three times at the track.
He had to run the car on the edge to finally get that win in his 12th Darlington start in his career, and he slapped the wall a few times, pushing hard to remain in contention as well as keep the lead.
"I dragged the wall a few times – got into it kind of hard a couple of different times," Larson said. "Thankfully [these] cars are tough enough to make little mistakes like that and not end your day."
Reddick also hit the wall.
"There's a couple of times on those restarts when the caution followed that I was pushing pretty hard – probably harder than I needed to and definitely probably didn't help the cycles [on the tires]. ... I completely crossed [the edge]," Reddick said.
"We left common sense on the last restart. I've never hit the wall so many times and gone so fast doing it."
Hamlin, Harvick Disappointment
Hamlin led 177 laps but had to pit under green with what he thought was a loose wheel with about 94 laps remaining.
The team told Hamlin they didn't see anything wrong with the wheel.
"It's close enough to where it didn't matter," Hamlin said. "What I felt, I was [almost] in a crash. I had to bring it in and just turned the day upside down."
Larson admittedly didn't shed a tear for Hamlin, who finished 25th.
"He was a great car so when I saw him come down pit road, I was happy because he was going to give the rest of us a shot to win," Larson said. "He was really, really strong.
"I was surprised how good he was throughout the whole run in the lead. He's honestly the best there is here in Darlington."
Harvick was a victim of bad luck when a caution came out just before he reached the pit-road commitment line. With the lights coming on to close the pits just before he hit the line, he didn't have enough time to avoid crossing the line to commit to pit road.
Harvick then had two options – drive down pit road at pit-road speed and lose some positions or have his team do the pit stop and restart at the rear of the field. He ended up doing the latter and finished 19th.
"The caution came out and the light was on, and I didn't think I could turn right [to avoid the line]," Harvick said.
Harvick is two points below the playoff cutline, while Hamlin, thanks to sweeping the stages, still is 27 points above the cutline.
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Wallace Rally
Wallace rallied after a slow pit stop and then a wreck with Joey Logano to finish seventh. He improved his position in the standings from eight points below the cutline to one.
"I've got to be better," Wallace said. "I appreciate the team for sticking behind me through all of the mistakes that I caused them. They didn't let us down and got us back to a top-10 finish."
The 23XI Racing driver should feel good as the next race in the round is Kansas, where he won a year ago and finished fourth in the spring.
Wallace knows that he might not get favors from drivers he had contact with at Darlington, although he'll hope they made his life difficult enough Sunday that the message was sent.
"The important thing to learn here is to not make enemies race one when you're in the playoffs because they make it hell – so I deserved everything I got throughout the night," Wallace said.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
