"We had an opportunity to finish a lot better" - Kyle Larson 'disappointed' with P8 finish at NASCAR Kansas race

Defending champion Kyle Larson is doing pretty well in the 2022 playoffs. Though he hasn’t been able to match his magical 2021 season, he is still in a good position to defend his championship at the end of the season.

During the recently concluded Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was among the five Chevy drivers who made it to the top-ten finish.

Furthermore, the #5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 was the third Hendrick car to finish in the top ten grid, trailing Alex Bowman (4th) and William Byron (6th).

The Kansas race marked not only his second playoff race but also his second top-ten finish since winning the Watkin Glen trophy on the 14th of August 2022. This was the finish every driver who finished behind him could have wished for, but Kyle Larson believes he could have done better. He feels he mostly failed on the restarts since he didn’t have a good balance on most of them.

Kyle Larson was asked in a post-race interview if this was one of the races where he couldn't control the car. In his response, the reigning champion said,

“It was a little bit of that. For the restarts, I just didn’t have a good balance; but I also didn’t do a good job on the restarts. I think I only had two good ones. Gave up a lot of stage points early on because of that. Even when I thought I was in the right line, I was tight.”

He added,

“After the green flag stop, I felt good but I was just a little bit on the tight side and couldn’t make enough ground in traffic to make a move and had to settle for eighth. Disappointed with that. I thought we had an opportunity to finish a lot better, but we’ll move onto Bristol”

Even though Kyle Larson arrived in the playoffs with a DNF from Daytona, he was sitting in the top five of the playoffs board. Moreover, the 30-year-old was one of the top drivers picked to win the first playoff race at Darlington. He gave his fans hope by securing seventh position during the qualifying race.

Kyle Larson earned playoffs points at the concluded Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

He was unable to tame the track the following day, finishing below the top ten cutlines and finishing in 12th place. After the race, Larson only managed to secure 17 points dropping from position four to position seven behind Ryan Blaney on the point board.

Following the average playoff start, Kyle Larson was hoping to up his game and reclaim his top five position in the playoff standings. Larson started the day on P7, just like last time at Darlington, but this time he was quick enough to finish inside the top ten cutlines.

However, he was still dropped in the playoff standings with one step to go. Larson dropped from seventh to eighth place after scoring 27 points at Kansas, while his teammate Chase Elliott advanced to 7th after earning 28 points.

The playoffs still have a long way to go, and he may be able to bounce back and take control of the playoffs like he did last year, where he won half of the playoff races. However, he may not be able to win back-to-back championships.