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Loop Data Box Score

NASCAR Cup Series

Season Finale 500

Phoenix Raceway

November 7th, 2021

Race #36 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 312
Miles Raced : 318.9
Time of Race : 03 Hours 06 minutes 33 seconds
Average Speed: 100.348 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.398 seconds
Cautions: 9
Caution Laps: 51
Lead Changes: 18

Crew chief Cliff Daniels and Kyle Larson celebrate — Avondale, Arizona - November 7th, 2021: Crew chief Cliff Daniels and Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrate after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. Photo by Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Kyle Larson	1	1	4	1	1	34	3.3	+0	32	22	+10	20	28	97.4%	107	312	132.0	40
Martin Truex Jr	12	10	1	2	1	21	3.7	+10	40	32	+8	35	55	98.4%	72	312	127.4	35
Denny Hamlin	6	12	2	3	1	20	4.7	+3	45	29	+16	43	37	99.7%	0	312	116.4	34
Ryan Blaney	4	2	5	4	1	18	5.3	+0	43	42	+1	40	13	99.0%	33	312	109.7	42
Chase Elliott	2	9	3	5	1	17	2.5	-3	31	18	+13	29	55	99.7%	94	312	129.2	32
Aric Almirola	18	18	8	6	5	27	11.4	+12	68	43	+25	40	14	82.7%	0	312	96.8	31
Kyle Busch	13	16	11	7	5	24	10.5	+6	75	67	+8	57	2	92.6%	0	312	99.5	33
Kevin Harvick	9	11	6	8	1	18	5.2	+1	56	39	+17	54	29	99.7%	1	312	108.9	43
Christopher Bell	8	4	10	9	1	21	12.6	-1	98	86	+12	69	0	72.1%	0	312	85.2	28
Brad Keselowski	11	3	17	10	2	24	12.4	+1	76	83	-7	57	5	71.5%	0	312	87.8	31
Joey Logano	10	14	7	11	3	22	10.8	-1	78	78	+0	62	1	85.9%	0	312	92.6	28
Matt DiBenedetto	15	13	12	12	6	26	11.7	+3	95	68	+27	73	2	90.4%	0	312	88.1	26
Cole Custer	7	19	20	13	7	24	15.7	-6	110	110	+0	47	2	48.7%	0	312	79.6	28
Ross Chastain	16	17	9	14	2	24	15.6	+2	78	84	-6	57	0	57.4%	0	312	76.2	23
Austin Dillon	23	21	14	15	4	27	19.8	+8	78	89	-11	26	0	26.6%	0	312	71.3	22
Kurt Busch	5	6	16	16	1	25	13.0	-11	72	77	-5	39	0	70.8%	1	312	79.2	23
William Byron	3	15	19	17	3	24	10.8	-14	88	74	+14	50	3	78.5%	0	312	88.0	26
Alex Bowman	14	7	15	18	3	28	18.5	-4	84	99	-15	13	0	21.2%	0	312	66.7	19
Tyler Reddick	20	5	13	19	1	34	16.0	+1	79	93	-14	36	1	53.5%	4	312	71.4	18
Ryan Preece	31	24	23	20	7	37	24.2	+11	63	74	-11	2	0	1.6%	0	312	56.7	17
Daniel Suarez	17	8	21	21	4	30	20.8	-4	64	80	-16	2	0	5.1%	0	312	60.8	16
Erik Jones	27	22	18	22	10	33	18.0	+5	81	68	+13	9	0	9.0%	0	312	67.2	15
Ryan Newman	19	20	22	23	15	32	21.1	-4	85	101	-16	1	0	1.0%	0	312	60.0	14
Michael McDowell	28	23	24	24	5	34	22.0	+4	49	72	-23	3	0	4.2%	0	312	56.3	13
Chris Buescher	26	26	25	25	7	35	24.7	+1	32	46	-14	6	0	3.5%	0	311	53.0	12
Justin Haley	29	27	26	26	24	36	26.9	+3	27	21	+6	0	0	0.0%	0	310	49.5	0
BJ McLeod	32	28	27	27	26	35	28.5	+5	10	18	-8	0	0	0.0%	0	309	45.7	0
Cody Ware	33	29	28	28	10	36	29.6	+5	13	11	+2	0	0	0.3%	0	306	43.3	0
Joey Gase	34	32	29	29	24	38	31.5	+5	15	28	-13	0	0	0.0%	0	303	38.7	0
Josh Bilicki	37	33	31	30	15	37	32.4	+7	8	15	-7	0	0	0.3%	0	303	35.7	0
Garrett Smithley	38	34	32	31	12	38	33.9	+7	7	5	+2	0	0	0.3%	0	301	32.5	0
Corey Lajoie	24	36	33	32	16	38	34.9	-8	19	20	-1	0	0	0.0%	0	281	35.3	5
David Starr	36	31	30	33	13	38	31.7	+3	23	14	+9	0	0	0.3%	0	273	38.2	0
Anthony Alfredo	30	25	34	34	25	37	29.7	-4	19	23	-4	0	0	0.0%	0	242	43.5	3
Chase Briscoe	22	30	35	35	6	30	25.0	-13	44	43	+1	18	1	27.6%	0	153	54.3	2
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	21	35	36	36	18	38	29.4	-15	44	40	+4	0	0	0.0%	0	140	44.8	1
Quin Houff	35	37	37	37	9	36	35.7	-2	7	11	-4	0	0	0.6%	0	122	30.3	1
Timmy Hill	39	38	38	38	14	39	37.8	+1	0	1	-1	0	0	0.3%	0	57	24.7	0
Bubba Wallace	25	39	39	39	20	39	38.7	-14	11	17	-6	0	0	0.0%	0	5	26.3	1

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Race Fast Facts

Phoenix Raceway
34th Annual NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race
Race Winner: Kyle Larson
Age: 29
Team : No. 5 - HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
Owner: Hendrick Motorsports
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Kyle Larson won the 34th Annual NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, his 16th victory in 259 NASCAR Cup Series races.
This is his 10th victory and 26th top-10 finish in 2021.
This is his first victory and ninth top-10 finish in 15 races at Phoenix Raceway.
Martin Truex Jr. (second) posted his 14th top-10 finish in 32 races at Phoenix Raceway. It is his 20th top-10 finish in 2021.
Denny Hamlin (third) posted his 20th top-10 finish in 33 races at Phoenix Raceway.
Anthony Alfredo (34th) was the highest finishing rookie.
Kyle Larson and Hendrick Motorsports have won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Driver/Owner Championships.
Chase Briscoe has won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors.
Chevrolet has won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturers Championship.

Race Recap

Kyle Larson comes full circle in winning NASCAR Cup Championship Race

November 7th, 2021

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

At the end of an almost mythical season came the quintessential story of redemption.

Taking advantage of an opportune caution and a blazingly fast pit stop by his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crew, Larson held off Martin Truex Jr. during a 24-lap green-flag run to the finish in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race.

The victory—Larson's 10th of the season and the 10th at a track where he had never won before—made a deserving series champion of the 29-year-old Californian, who honed his racing skills in open-wheeled cars on dirt.

As Larson slowed his car for the cool-down lap, the tears started flowing.

"I can't... I cannot believe it," Larson said after climbing from his car. "I didn't even think I'd be racing a Cup car a year and a half ago. To win a championship is crazy. I've got to say first-off thank you so much to (team owner) Rick Hendrick, Hendrickcars.com, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, every single one of my supporters in the stands, watching at home and my family.

"There were so many points in this race where I did not think we were going to win. Without my pit crew on that last stop (on Lap 285), we would not be standing right here. They are the true winners of this race. They are true champions. I'm just blessed to be a part of this group. Every single man and woman at Hendrick Motorsports, this win is for all of us, and every one of you.v"This is unbelievable. I'm speechless."

This was the Kyle Larson who watched last year's Cup championship race from afar after drawing a suspension from NASCAR and losing his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing for using a racial slur during a non-NASCAR-related virtual race in April 2020.

But after Larson did yeoman work to earn reinstatement, team owner Rick Hendrick hired the virtuoso driver, who won 46 dirt races in multiple divisions during his absence from NASCAR.

Hendrick's decision paid immediate dividends and culminated in the 14th series championship for the organization (series-most).

Until Lap 282 of 312, however, Larson's chances of victory were all but nonexistent. He was fourth among the Championship 4 drivers and trailing Truex, the leader at the time, by more than four seconds.

But on the lap that changed the race, the brakes in David Starr's exploded and dropped a rotor in the low lane in Turn 3. Under the resulting the caution, the ninth of the race, Larson's crew performed its second-fastest stop of the year and got Larson off pit road in the lead from pit stall No. 1, which the driver had earned by winning the pole during Saturday's qualifying.

Larson restarted from the outside on Lap 289 with Hamlin beside him. Truex, who lost two positions on pit road, lined up behind Larson, with defending Chase Elliott to his inside. Larson surged into the lead, and Truex followed, passing Hamlin.

Truex contested the lead early in the run before Larson established a more comfortable margin. But Truex was closing at the finish and was just .398 seconds behind when Larson crossed the stripe for the final time to earn the 16th victory of his career.

"I don't know what the caution was for, but just untimely caution for us and lost two spots on pit road, and that was the race," Truex said. "Twenty (laps) to go, you're not going to pass one of the fastest cars out there. We just didn't have the short-run speed all day, and then certainly with 20 to go, it's going to be hard to pass anybody out front in clean air.

"I think if we would have had the lead, we could have held him off. But hindsight is 20-20, and we didn't have the lead, so here we are. Really proud of our team and our season. Come in here once again as underdogs and had a shot at it, so that was fun."

Before the Lap 282 caution Hamlin's No. 11 Joe Gibbs racing Toyota was closing on Truex, but the yellow flag foiled a well-executed game plan by Hamlin's team.

"I really liked where we were at with about 25 to go," said Hamlin, who came home third in front of Ryan Blaney and Elliott. "We were just exceptional in the long run, which wasn't too surprising, but started running the 19 (Truex) back down there and got within a couple car lengths, and obviously that debris caution changed a lot.

"Special congrats to Larson and his team. Those guys, any time you can win 10 races in a year, you're absolutely a deserving champion. They did a great job on the last pit stop and got him out there, and it was just set sail after that."

Had he won, the 25-year-old Elliott would have become the youngest driver to win multiple Cup championships, but his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn't have either the track position or the necessary speed in the final run.

"I felt like our NAPA Chevy was really good, and I thought our team did a really good job preparing this week," said Elliott, who led 94 laps, second only to Larson's 107. "I was really proud of our group. I thought we brought a really good car and did a lot of things that we were wanting to do today. Just didn't work out, and the sequence of the way all that went certainly was unfortunate for us.

"But look, proud of our team, a lot to build on, and also congrats to Kyle and (crew chief) Cliff (Daniels). What an amazing season. Very, very deserving champions, and glad to see Kyle have success. When you're a good driver and a good person, and you surround yourself with good people, success is warranted. It's good to see that.

"But we'll be back stronger next year and try to give them a run."