{"id":506916,"date":"2026-03-01T07:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T07:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506916\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T07:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T07:31:13","slug":"nascar-insiders-sound-the-alarm-on-kyle-larsons-season-after-disastrous-move-finish-at-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506916\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR insiders sound the alarm on Kyle Larson’s season after disastrous move, finish at Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Larson<\/a> entered the 2026 NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series season as one of the favorites to contend for the championship. However, after a costly mistake at Atlanta and a slow start to the season as a whole, some insiders are already warning<\/a> that the No. 5 team may have put itself in a hole.<\/p>\n

On the latest episode of\u00a0The Teardown<\/a>, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi broke down<\/a> Larson\u2019s aggressive move at the end of Stage 2 that led to a crash and a 32nd-place finish in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway. The incident not only ruined a strong run, but also dropped Larson to 21st in the standings after just two races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kyle Larson one is really tough,\u201d Gluck said<\/a>. \u201cThis is a guy you\u2019re thinking is going to contend for the regular-season championship. In order to win a championship this year, we\u2019ve heard Denny Hamlin say you need to be in the top three in points in the regular season because of all the bonus points. You can\u2019t be too far back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making matters worse was that Larson appeared to be in great shape before the incident. He was running near the front late in the stage and was set to score valuable points before cutting down the track and making contact with Shane van Gisbergen<\/a>, ending his own day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe finished 32nd,\u201d Gluck continued. \u201cHe was in position to win that stage. Even when William Byron<\/a> passed him, he was still going to finish third in the stage and be in contention for the win. Then he cuts down, says he didn\u2019t realize he was three-wide, and it takes him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bianchi said the move was the type of decision that could hurt more this season, because of the format\u2019s emphasis on regular-season points: \u201cThat\u2019s just a really bold move to make at that point in the race,\u201d Bianchi responded. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to. Take your points. It\u2019s a big-picture race. This is what we talked about with the No. 5 team with this format change. You need to have a big-picture perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Larson went for track position and paid the price: \u201cEven if you lose two spots there, it\u2019s cool,\u201d Bianchi added. \u201cNo big deal. You\u2019re still in the game. Don\u2019t take yourself out of the game. Unfortunately, he took himself out of the game there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result leaves Larson in an unfamiliar spot early in the season, already trailing Tyler Reddick<\/a> by a significant margin after just two races: \u201cNow Larson is 83 points behind Reddick,\u201d Gluck said. \u201cSure, it\u2019s early. But this isn\u2019t a team that\u2019s just trying to make the playoffs. This is a team trying to win the regular-season title. You\u2019re spotting a lot of points very early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Bianchi noted that Hendrick Motorsports still has the speed to recover. Still, mistakes like Atlanta can\u2019t become a trend: \u201cThe opportunity is going to be there for them to score points,\u201d he concluded. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut this one was unnecessary. He could have had stage points, maybe a top finish, maybe 30 more points. Instead, you leave with almost nothing. That\u2019s a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson entered the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season as one of the favorites to contend for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-506916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}