Use code FAST20 for 20% off your order:
More NASCAR content at
Shop OOTG merch and diecasts at
Support the Show:
TikTok:
Twitter:
Instagram:
Thanks for watching and please SUBSCRIBE for more NASCAR content!
Thumbnail Cred: NBC Sports
The “Kyle Larson is Not Clutch” Narrative
45 comments
Sometimes you gotta break a few cam shafts too make a championship
Well this wasn’t the video I was expecting to see in my recommended but I always love a good Eric Estepp video.
As a Hendrick Fan, I personally believe that Larson can advance into the Round of 12. Sure, this round is his most difficult round, but I personally believe that he can make it into the next round. He is good at Road Courses, so the ROVAL is his best shot. All he has to do is not make any mistakes that can cost him his chances of moving on to the next round. Also, don’t forget, that his crew chief Cliff Daniels is not only a great crew chief, but also a great motivator as well.
He was out in 2021 bc of the power steering failure and came back and won the race
And honestly, he isnt a bad superspeedway racer, he just has bad luck there. So many times though at superspeedways he is qualifying upfront and might run well and just get caught up in someone else’s wreck. He just needs to stay clean at Talladega and have a good run at the ROVAL.
@Kadin Smith yeah, if he runs at 90% and doesn’t have any issues, he definitely makes it to the next round. Obviously you never know if there will be issues.
And yeah people give Larson crap but he has been running a lot better at Talladega. What’s funny is ppl will say Bubba is great at Talladega based on his win, but ignore that aside from that win, he does not actually get good finishes at Talladega. They are usually at Daytona. There’s no real difference in that aside from luck.
I could be wrong but didn’t Christopher Bell wrecked Gibbs going for a stage win and not essentially guaranteed he would not make the playoffs.
Just a long way to say that anything can happen at Dega….
@Ka Gg Bell was just pushing to hard in the corner at Daytona and hit Ty and he spun into Blaney.
@Ka Gg Yeah, Larson has speed, just can’t get a good finish.
He drove that car to the edge and it snapped loose. He was on old tires. New tires that sticks. It was great side by side racing. You can’t stop a car from wrecking itself. Way to battle for the win both bubba and Larson
Well, Second would be better points than where he finished. His ego got in the way of a good finish
@Mike voyles unfortunately it’s only the wins that matter in this format and a lock in is worth the risk
That’s how I want my racer to race….not drive around the track on a Sunday drive ..race dammit
Could’ve would’ve and should’ve is all irrelevant he was going for the win and you can’t fault him for that
One driver that is definitely choking right now is Truex. I know he just lost Sherry but WTF is going with the 19 team? They’ve been way off from their teammates.
They broke up 9 months ago for a reason…btw
Just in general, over the past 5 years, Truex has lost so many wins he had won due to bad luck or him making a mistake. He would have at least 10 more by now.
His car was very good for 1/4 of the race at Texas. After the spin, his car was never the same. Went from a Top 10 to an also-ran. Frustrating.
@Bryon Kiddersure but they were together for like 2 decades or something. Even if they split, that’s gotta affect him.
I don’t think his heart is in it this year. Coming back was a diversion from the breakup with Sherry.
I think if Larson didn’t let other drivers put him in bad situations instead of putting the pressure on them and putting them in the bad situation. He would have more wins
Yeah he typically reserves that type of driving for his teammates. Lol.
Larson is an all or nothing driver…clutch isn’t necessarily the right descriptor for him specifically…regardless of outcome he is going to push it to the limit every race…it also helps that my kids look for #5 at all times on the track; they r my spotters
great post
Was Larson run like Takuma Sato in IndyCar racing?
Well said
Truth is he couldn’t handle the heat in the kitchen and got intimidated by bubba and lost it lmaooo
@odddamian2508 Not necessarily his car couldn’t handle the heat he had no problem driving it in there the car snapped loose
“Clutch” is short for the saying “To clutch victory out of the hands of defeat”. There ya go! Lol
Larson races the Cup Series the same way he runs sprint cars, it’s tuff to let the other guy go…lol
Yeah that’s what I’ve always said. He races at too much like a dirt car where he thinks he can make up the ground immediately. Like chill out a second. Take another half lap to get past him. Lol
Larson does get a little greedy sometimes but he shows up to win if lm Rick Hendrick I would expect win not settle
I mean… Larson has won a championship during the playoff era
No way to accomplish that without having at least a minimal ability to be clutch
I think it’s more of the 2023 season in general being a ‘what if’ for the 5 team. They totally could have 10+ wins, but have had a combination of bad luck with late cautions, bad luck getting caught up in wrecks, mechanical failures, you name it. Got wrecked with fast cars at Daytona, Kansas, Dover, Darlington, and Pocono. Larson spun himself at Bristol Dirt and Texas. He had battery issues at California. Bad luck with late restarts at Vegas and Phoenix.
Even with having an abysmal season overflowing with DNFs, the 5 team has the most top 5s, lots of laps lead, 3 victories plus the All-Star race, and lots of laps lead.
He wrecked at Texas, and still left in the positive. It may only be +2 with Dega and the Roval coming up, but with Byron through to the next round all of Hendrick should be solely focused on the blue number 5 the next few weeks.
Kyle Larson is the definition of “checkers or wreckers” he has been like that since his xfinity days 10 years ago
couldn’t have said it better
Exactly, unfortunately for him it’s more wreckers when it comes down to those situations.
For the darlington spring race firstly Ross did a dirty pass on larson causing him to lose at least 3 spots. Then came the incident where larson ran ross up the track just like what ross did to him. Finally, in the last incident ross came up and wrecked himself along with kyle
Bro came back with the spotlight on him for all the wrong reasons and he won 10 races and a chip. Thats as clutch as it gets, he was nerfed for the plot.
Saying the hard r in any other sport that blatantly would have had him permanently in all the sub sub divisions. Why he returned in the best car like nothing happened is for the entire sports fan base to figure out.
You have to remember his team played a huge part in all that too. Plus he had some luck in there as well.
@Odd Damianthats what i been sayin the whole time
@odddamian2508 But we know the real reason already. Corporate image and the social and economic crisis NASCAR was( and still) dealing with.
I believe he could’ve came back and passed Bubba if he eased up. But we will never know.
I feel for Larson. Thank caution with 30 laps to go was unlucky. I think Larson doesn’t have to be clutch because lately he has had consistent speed. I just don’t know about Talladega. Larson has just been so good there but always caught up in a stupid wreck. I hope Larson does well.
I’ve said this for a long time larson was in the 42 at chip ganassi in mid equipment and he got 6 wins plus a all star win but once he went to the 5 at HENDRICK MOTOSPORTS he was a totally different driver I believe if you were to put say Chris buescher or maybe even austin Dillon in a Hendrick motorsports equipment I believe they would be very good just a theory.
Back in the day (late 70s and 80s) there was typically an incident like this racing for the lead at some point in the race. Never knew when it was coming but I think that is part of the reason old school fans liked racing better back then – forget points – a fight for the win happened on a regular basis and not just on a re-start. Of course most of the race was not side by side even on big tracks – but guys loosing it, touching fenders, wrecking each other for the Lead – happened frequently.