How quickly things changed for Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron during overtime at Talladega Superspeedway.
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One moment, they both raced in contention for the win that would send one of them to the Championship 4. Minutes later, they stood on pit road watching Chase Briscoe celebrate his first-ever superspeedway win.
Neither Hendrick driver did anything wrong; they just fell victim to circumstances that were out of their control.
Larson ran out of fuel after taking the white flag in overtime. He led the bottom line at the time as he fought Bubba Wallace for the lead, and then he suddenly pulled onto the apron of the track.
He prevented a massive crash that would have caught up most of the frontrunners, but he also fell to a 26th-place finish. Now, he heads to Martinsville Speedway with a 36-point cushion to the cutline.
"I was just hoping that maybe we could make it, but midway down the back, it started stumbling and I just got out of the way," Larson said on pit road after the race.
"It's unfortunate. I'd rather have a bigger points cushion heading into next weekend, but we'll regroup and focus on Martinsville (Speedway)."
Byron raced right behind Larson when the 2021 Cup Series champion ran out of fuel. As Larson pulled onto the apron, Byron attempted to move up to fight for the win. He did not have a big enough run, so Briscoe and Ty Gibbs used the opportunity to pull down in front of him.
The driver of the No. 24 didn't have the chance to win in this overtime finish. He still had an opportunity to score a top-10 finish and a solid points day... until he didn't. Christopher Bell pushed Carson Hocevar, who then hit Byron from behind and spun him out of the pack.
Byron went from fifth to spinning in the tri-oval. He slid through the grass and across the finish line, ultimately ending the day in 25th place. He fell to 36 points below the cutline heading into the elimination race at Martinsville Speedway.
"Certainly, a finish would have helped us be a little bit closer on the points side of things," Byron said. "We just lost control of the race. We just couldn't get the pushes going the way we needed to on the bottom lane.
"We got the outside lane clear down in front of us, and then the No. 5 ran out of fuel there on the backstretch and that kind of broke up the energy a little bit more. We just couldn't get it linked back together. It was just wrong place, wrong time. I felt like we were in a good spot where I was on the bottom, but we just couldn't get linked up."
Both Byron and Larson have won races at Martinsville Speedway. Byron won the spring races in 2022 and 2024. Larson won the spring race in 2023. The only question is whether they can pull this off next weekend at the Virginia short track.
Winning is Byron's path forward. Erasing this deficit on points is unlikely. Larson can point his way to Phoenix. He just needs to finish ahead of Christopher Bell, the other driver above the cutline. The expectation is that a driver below the cutline will win and shake up the Championship 4.
