Things are going downhill for Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson in the playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Despite the massive points buffer and a cushion in the playoff standings, the Goodyear tires could be the reason behind Larson’s playoff run getting derailed.

Late in the stage 1 run of the race, Larson was trying to get the best out of his #5 Chevy car by hugging the outside wall. Now this style of racing at Homestead is typical but also has a detrimental side to it, and the latter one came true for Larson as he suffered a flat tire and the rear of his race car hit hard in the wall.

Kyle Larson rips into the Next Gen car

Although the crew did their work on the car in trying to make it race fit, it seems like Larson’s accepted his defeat and knows his day cannot be salvaged. Now, this can be frustrating for a driver who has been the most consistent performer throughout the season. A small incident could have big repercussions on his title hopes, and this was evident from Larson’s angry rant on the team radio.

“These f—— cars are stupid. How can you get a flat tire and be done … or you get a flat tire and wear out a little bit of your diffuser and your race is killed. Stupid.” This time he didn’t hold back on his criticism of the race car and was livid with the card he was being drawn in a crucial playoff race. Jordan Bianchi shared this update on X.

These complaints with the Next Gen car aren’t something new. Recently, the aero package has undergone a few tweaks and changes to keep the race car from flipping up in the air. Not only that, Ryan Blaney further highlighted a safety concern after a hard hit crashing his race car sideways in the practice run at Las Vegas.

So it’s fair to say that NASCAR’s newest invention is still a work in progress. As far as Kyle Larson is concerned, he will need to do his best to keep himself in contention for the next week, as a win is now out of sight for him.

Larson stretched his luck to its limit

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If there’s one driver in the garage who is relentless in his pursuit of championship glory, it is Kyle Larson. Despite being handed the short stick with the bad accident, the HMS star stuck to his task, and he ran his way up to the front. A banged-up car wasn’t going to keep him from giving his all in a desperate effort to win the race and lock himself for the final 4.

With 10 to go, he got in the back of race leader Ryan Blaney and tried threading the needle in the tight spot. But he lost the grip on his #5 Chevy and came down sliding off the racetrack. And that was it; he stretched his luck as far as he could. A P13 finish wasn’t enough to keep him on the safe as he fell in the drop zone with a race still to race for in Martinsville next weekend.

“Proud of my effort there, and then yeah, just bummed that it didn’t work out there in the three. Austin did nothing wrong; there was a little bit of a hole, and I thought that might be my opportunity to win if I could get clear of Austin and get to the wall. Just didn’t work out that way. I don’t think I did anything wrong; there was a gap, and I was trying to take it.” Larson said this after the race.

With Tyler Reddick clinching the win, Larson has now lost his points buffer, and he will need an error-free, clean race at Martinsville to make the final 4.