Now, that is how you finish a race. Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick tangled on the very last lap of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, taking some seriously wild rides before somehow crossing the line with their podium finishes intact.
Larson was running second and hunting down eventual winner Chase Briscoe when it all kicked off. Pushing the high groove at the end of the South Point 400, his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet clanged hard against the outside retaining wall. The contact slowed him up instantly, and Reddick's No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota piled right into him before veering sharply into the infield grass.
Somehow, Larson kept his Kyle Busch tribute car rolling across the line with massive right-side damage to take second place, finishing 1.376 seconds behind Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Reddick scrambled home to claim third. It was the latest twist in a remarkable run for Larson, who has now finished either first or second in the last four Cup Series races.
“I was just trying to push it through (Turns) 3 and 4 to build some momentum at him and try to get by him down the straightaway,” Larson explained after the chaos. “I just got really loose and overcorrected it into the wall. Thankfully, I was able to limp it home. It got exciting, for sure. I wish I could have won in this paint scheme while honoring Kyle because that would have been in very Kyle Busch fashion, but again, it was a great fight by this team.”
Getting to that podium was no walk in the park for either driver. Larson had to recover from early handling woes that dropped him a lap down before he could fight back to the front. That resilience paid off in the standings, as he expanded his lead in the Cup Series standings to 40 points over second-place Denny Hamlin in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 postseason, describing his Sunday afternoon as “a fight all day long.”
Reddick had his own mountains to climb after battling early mechanical trouble, including a battery change where his team didn't lose a lap. Though he gained five points on the leader, he sits 106 points back, matching his best finish in this year’s Chase—a third-place result from the pole in the postseason opener last month at Darlington Raceway.
“That pretty much sums up what today was like,” Reddick said of the frantic closing laps. “Just one thing after another for us. Just really proud of everyone’s effort on this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry. We didn’t lose a lap changing the battery there, and we were able to drive back to the front — it just took too long. It put us in a spot where we had to be perfect on that final run, and unfortunately, we had some more mistakes and we came out behind the 5 (Larson) after we got by him in the first part of that run. I think ultimately that was the difference. If we could have stayed ahead of him leaving pit road, I think we get to those cars first and maybe don’t burn up as much. I think we could have won today.”
