Larson finally stumbles in NASCAR’s championship. Was it just a bad day or sign of serious trouble?

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kyle Larson climbed out of his beat-up No. 5 Chevrolet with a dejected look on his face, stewing about a 34th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway after a flat front right tire caused him to hit the wall.

Six weeks of excellence in NASCAR’s playoffs had disappeared in the span of a few miserable hours in the desert on Sunday.

Even before the tire mishap, Larson struggled at Phoenix Raceway, qualifying 22nd on Saturday. He wasn’t any better during the race, limping around the mile tri-oval in the back of the pack before the flat tire that almost seemed like a merciful ending.

Tyler Reddick won at Phoenix for his sixth victory of the season. Ryan Blaney was second, Chase Elliott finished third and Christopher Bell was fourth.

“I didn’t expect to be good, but I didn’t expect to be that bad either,” Larson said. “It wasn’t a lot of fun today, but we were just trying to salvage what we could of the day. We’ll go to Talladega and try to forget about today and get back after it. We’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”

Forgetting about Sunday’s miserable performance might be easier said than done, but it would be silly to say Larson’s chase for a third Cup Series championship is finished.

The Hendrick Motorsports team still has a 5-point lead over Bell heading into Talladega next weekend. Briscoe is in third, 24 points back, while Denny Hamlin (31), Blaney (40), Joey Logano (44) and Reddick (56) are still in the hunt with three races to go — largely because Larson had such a bad day.

The No. 5’s free fall was just as eye-catching as his previous dominance in NASCAR’s postseason. His average finish of 2.83 was the best pace over the first six postseason races since the “Chase” was introduced in 2004. He’s won two races and finished second in two others.

It was a stellar run reminiscent of Jimmie Johnson’s peak in the 2000s.

Now most of that momentum is gone. It’s back to the garage to figure out what went wrong.

“We’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt,” Larson said.

Who is on the rise?

Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota has newfound momentum heading into Talladega. His 23XI team had the hottest car in the sport early in the year, winning four of the season’s first six races, but had a big lull over the summer.

He’s back in the hunt for title — though still a considerable long shot.

“We just had to keep showing up, stay focused on the details,” Reddick said. “We did a good job of just fighting through the things that we needed to work on today, just making the right calls at the right time.”

Briscoe is still lurking as well after back-to-back wins in Las Vegas and Charlotte vaulted him back into contention. Hamlin — who is still looking for his first Cup Series championship — finished 28th in Phoenix after a one-two punch of bad luck caused by a flat tire and then a speeding violation on pit road as he struggled to control the car.

The No. 11 Toyota still made up ground in the chase from a points perspective, even though he fell from second to fourth in the standings.

Blaney and Logano had a good run in Phoenix for Joe Gibbs Racing and have plenty of confidence heading to Talladega. And then there’s Bell, who finished fourth in the desert and is now just 5 points back of Larson.

Buckle up. NASCAR’s postseason is wide open.

“It’s going to be a battle, that’s for sure,” Bell said. “We’re right there in it. Really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in stages.”

Toyota continues excellence

Toyota continued its outstanding season by winning the NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturers’ Championship after winning 18 races so far this season. It is Toyota’s first manufacturers’ title and most single-season wins since 2019.

Toyota has five of the top nine drivers in the playoff standings, including Bell at No. 2, Briscoe at No. 3, Hamlin at No. 4, Reddick at No. 7 and Ty Gibbs at No. 9. Bubba Wallace is 12th.

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