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Kyle Larson suffered heavy damage to his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro on Monday in the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers 500 at Michigan, which took him out of the race and could impact the playoff standings.
Larson, who entered the race No. 1 in the standings, appeared to have a chance to pick up his fifth win in 24 starts this season, before getting loose and spinning out in Turn 4. It led to a multi-car crash near the end of stage two.
Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher were among the drivers involved in the wreck. While Wallace and Buescher, who entered the race 12th and 13th respectively in the points standings, were able to stay in the race, the damage to their cars took them out of contention.
Wallace entered with 587 points and Buescher had 584. Both are now in danger of not finishing in the top 16, which earn spots in the playoff. Buescher, who finished sixth at Michigan, has a 16-point cushion in the playoffs. Wallace is the first driver out of the playoffs by one point to Ross Chastain.
Race winner Tyler Reddick took over the lead for the regular season point standings. Larson’s crash sent him to fourth, 32 points out.
More: NASCAR playoff picture: Cup Series points standings after Michigan
Larson was asked if he received any warning he was in trouble before getting loose?
“Yeah, I mean you get a little bit of warning right before you start spinning,” Larson said. “But once these Next Gen cars step out, it’s really hard to save it. I was just doing what I thought would be right to funnel our way up and just put myself in bad spot.”
The race was delayed by weather on Sunday.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Cup Series standings: How Kyle Larson wreck affects Bubba Wallace
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