“We’ve Seen It Go the Opposite Way With Larson” – Jeff Gordon Reveals the Horror of Round of 8 for HMS, Breathing a Sigh of Relief

2021 was a Cinderella story for Kyle Larson. It was a season where he took a giant leap in the right direction. He danced his way to a full sweep, claiming his first championship title at the Phoenix sunset of the season. But as the calendar flipped to 2022, it was clear that the road ahead was a steep and daunting one. How do you top a season where you won 10 races and your first Cup championship? The answer was that you almost certainly couldn’t.

And so 2022 unfolded, bringing with it a cruel twist of fate. The No. 5 car failed to make it into the Championship 4. As the playoffs raged on, Kyle Larson watched his championship defense slowly unravel, like a threadbare tire in a high-speed chase.

Hendrick Motorsports aims for a triple threat at Championship 4 

Fast forward to 2023, and the Hendrick Motorsports camp is on cloud nine. Kyle Larson has already punched his ticket to the Championship 4, hunting for the title of two-time champ. While Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon boldly claims that he’s looking at three Hendrick Chevys in the Championship 4.

With Larson safely secured, William Byron is looking like a force to be reckoned with, amassing a staggering 30 points above the cutline. In the owner’s standings, Chase Elliott‘s #9 may be struggling, but if he can pull off a Martinsville win, he too will race in the Championship 4 for the owner’s title.

2022, the season of promise, saw Kyle Larson lead 635 laps and win five poles. However, the playoffs proved to be a puzzle too complicated to solve. A 22-race winless streak cut like a knife, especially since he registered eight top-five finishes during that dry spell. But it was a 35th-place finish on the Roval that dealt the final blow, booting Larson from the playoffs.

So this time around, as the grid moved over to the Charlotte road course for the elimination round, the four-time champ kept his fingers crossed for a different outcome, as he admitted, “Especially the last round [the Round of 8]. We knew this round lined up well for Larson, good for William, good for us as an organization. I’m sure there are other organizations that are in it that would say the same thing.”

The 52-year-old added, “But that last round was just tough — you’ve got Texas, you’ve got Talladega, and then the Roval. Just to kind of get through that, which we’ve seen it go the opposite way with Larson last year. And it was tough this year. You just have a whole new respect for the way that this system works and how difficult it is, no matter what kind of year you’ve had, to be able to get to Phoenix. Or just even get this far into it.”

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But the playoff elimination format remains a thorn in the side of many, creating an unpredictable rollercoaster ride. Looking ahead to 2024, the NASCAR calendar is serving up a whole new level of chaos, something that even Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin find hard to digest.

2024 track roulette to leave Gordon’s nerves on edge 

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Earnhardt Jr. didn’t hold back, sharing his thoughts on this “crazy round” of races that make up the 2024 NASCAR schedule. “A Talladega or a Daytona in any round is a wild idea,” he exclaimed. It’s like trying to juggle flaming bowling pins while riding a bicycle blindfolded. Because yes, those are superspeedways, and yes, superspeedways will make playoff appearances.

While drafting tracks have been included in the calendar before, note: Yellawood 500. What’s truly mind-boggling is its combination with the other 2 extremely unpredictable tracks in a single playoff round.

2024 brings seismic changes. The introduction of the Iowa Speedway, a short track, was a bold move given the notorious challenges of the next-gen car’s short-track package. But it doesn’t end there. The iconic Indy oval makes its return, Bristol goes back to the concrete for both appearances, and Darlington plays host to the regular-season finale.

However, Gordon will be crossing his fingers right at the Round of 16 next year. The grid is set to face an additional drafting superspeedway and road course in the playoffs in 2024. The playoffs kick off with the high-banked 1.54-mile drafting oval at Atlanta, followed by a trip to Watkins Glen. A drafting track is followed immediately by a road course—a move that plays into the sport’s inherent unpredictability.

NASCAR’s Senior Vice President, Ben Kennedy, defended,  “Introducing a drafting-style track like Atlanta to the Round of 16, to follow it up with Watkins Glen and then the Bristol Night Race is really going to test the variability of our drivers and their skills as they think about punching their ticket to the Round of 12. Something we wanted to do that was a little bit different and shake it up a bit.”

But, it was JGR stalwart Denny Hamlin who summed up the frustrations best, calling the decision “silly.” The 42-year-old passionately argued, “I don’t like it. I think you continue to make this a game of chance. One of the common quotes you hear from the leadership is ‘We like to test out drivers.’ That’s silly. You’re testing their luck; you are not testing their skill.”

With the 2024 season looking as turbulent as a thunderstorm, let’s not forget that the 2023 season is in its final moments, heading to Martinsville this weekend. Who do you think will claim the final two spots for the Championship 4?

Read more: Denny Hamlin Declares NASCAR’s “Game of Chance” Would Be to Blame for Ruining His ‘Certain’ Championship Claim