Kyle Larson was one of the best-performing drivers in the round of 16 but a mishap in the very first round of 12 race has put him in a precarious situation. Touted as one of the title favorites, Larson may very well be eliminated from the playoffs if things do not go to plan, adding more misery to what has already been a below-par season for Hendrick Motorsports. Right now, Larson is in a situation not too dissimilar to what his title rival Martin Truex Jr. faced in the round of 16 as per a prominent NASCAR insider.

The Texas race was actually going quite well for the Hendrick Motorsports man who found himself challenging for the race win in the final stage. With just 20 laps to go, the #5 driver was battling Bubba Wallace for the lead. As the two cars got mighty tight with each other, the HMS car lost its shape, spun out of control, slammed into the wall, and retired from the race.

Kyle Larson’s “reality” may see him bid adieu to the playoffs

Larson now finds himself in eighth place on the driver’s championship table only two points ahead of the cutline. With drivers like Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and Kyle Busch all below the cutline, that eighth place is anything but safe for the HMS man.

Many fans questioned why Larson went for such an aggressive move at that stage of the race. Had he just held his position, he could have finished in the top five and that would have made his points situation a lot better than what it is at the moment.

But here’s the thing. Kyle Larson is a racer and if he sees an opportunity to win the race, he will go for it. Secondly, he is a smart racer and he knows that Talladega is not his strong suit. Taking a victory at Kansas would completely take away the pressure of the rest of the round. Unfortunately, he is now under more pressure than ever.

On a recent episode of The Teardown, NASCAR journalists Jeff Gluck and Jules Bianchi were on Larson’s case and that is where the latter made the point about the HMS man being in a similar position as Truex was and that was the harsh reality for him and HMS.

“It’s very up in the air right now which again goes back to the points format and we talked about it a lot in round 1 with Martin Truex Jr and now we’re talking about Larson. This doesn’t discriminate. You can be the favorite, you can have a great round, you can be the regular-season champion, it doesn’t matter,”  Bianchi said.

“This is the reality for the next two weeks now of what he’s going to have to do to navigate this because it is going to be an uphill battle and he is, even if he has a good Talladega points-wise, he’s probably still gonna be in a spot where he can’t have a bad Roval race cause you used up your safety net,” he added.

While a lot of HMS fans might think Bianchi’s viewpoint is a bit too pessimistic, he does raise a very valid point. Talladega is not one of Larson’s strong suits and even if he does well over there, he still cannot afford to have a bad race at the Roval the week after.

Read More: Rick Hendrick’s Insider Ruthlessly Belittles Kyle Larson’s Abilities in Brutally Honest Rant

But that’s not the worst part. In his entire Cup Series career, Kyle Larson has never won a race at Talladega and in his last five appearances on the track, he has finished in the top 15 only once.

Talladega stats paint a bleak picture for the 2021 champion

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It might not seem like it but that DNF at Texas is a huge turning point in Kyle Larson’s season and not in a good way. He might very well be left with a mountain to climb at the Roval if one takes a look at his numbers at Talladega.

The 2021 Cup Series champion has started 17 races at the superspeedway and has never won even once. His best finishing position was 4th. That is also his one and only top-five finish at the track.

In the last five races, his finishing positions are as follows: 33rd, 18th, 4th, 37th and 40th. Even in his title-winning season in 2021, the HMS man finished 37th and 40th in the two Talladega races. Going by these numbers, it is unlikely that the #5 driver will even finish in the top 10.

But NASCAR is an unpredictable sport where miracles can happen out of the blue. Will Kyle Larson have a good result at Talladega or will it just be another one in his string of lowly finishes at the superspeedway?

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