NASCAR insiders evaluate Kyle Larson's disappointing wreck at Atlanta

Kyle Larson had the advantage of being the No. 1 seed entering Sunday’s Cup Series playoff opener at Atlanta.

266 laps and 400 miles later, that advantage is gone. Larson got loose in Turn 2 on Lap 55 and made hard contact with the outside wall. That ended his day early and he finished 37th. Luckily for Larson, he didn’t fall below the cutline as the 30 playoff points he accumulated during the regular season gave him a buffer. With Watkins Glen and Bristol on the horizon, Larson is still 15 points clear of the cutline.

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As long as Sunday’s race was just a one off, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic doesn’t foresee a scenario where Larson fails to advance to the Round of 12.

“I don’t really think that was superspeedway related,” Gluck said on “The Teardown” podcast. “It was a hard tire, car was a little bit out of control maybe at the moment, everybody was screaming loose in that first stage. He got loose and that’s it. Now, the bad part of it superspeedway-wise was Chase Briscoe not being able to drive through the wreck. That was really unfortunate for Chase Briscoe because that was somebody who I did have going far as my darkhorse in the playoffs to the Round of 8.

“… He’s used a mulligan, he’s still in OK position but he’s made his one mistake. Now, he needs to have a clean Watkins Glen and Bristol.”

Kyle Larson reacts to violent collision with outside wall in playoff opener at Atlanta

As for what caused his No. 5 Chevrolet to get so loose in the corner, Larson himself is still trying to figure that out.

“I’m OK,” Larson said. “Thankfully everything held up well inside the car. That was a huge hit. Not really sure what caused it. I was actually sort of like tight loaded into the corner and then I was pretty far around the corner, and it stepped out. It just all happened really fast.”

Based on Larson’s pedigree as a driver, odds are he rebounds next week at Watkins Glen. As for Briscoe, his playoff outlook now looks even bleaker. After Larson made contact with the outside wall, Briscoe slammed into the back of him.

Briscoe, running inside the top-15, tried to slow up and avoid Larson, but misjudged the situation.

“We were running 10th or 12th and the 5 got really loose, hit the fence and I saw him coming down the track and was trying to slow down and slide left,” Briscoe said. “He slid farther than I anticipated, so I tried going right and just KO’d him.”

Briscoe raced his way into the playoffs courtesy of his victory at Darlington and will likely need to find Victory Lane at Watkins Glen or Bristol to advance to the Round of 12. He is 21 points below the cutline.