Rookie Kyle Larson falls short in bid to make Chase

RICHMOND, Va. — Kyle Larson came close to a top-10 performance Saturday night, but it wasn't enough to get the rookie into the Chase.

Larson, who needed to win the race or have Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle encounter problems, saw none of those things happen during the Federated Auto Parts 400. Instead, he finished 11th while Newman clinched a spot by finishing ninth and Biffle, who had a 24-point lead on Larson entering the night, got in by finishing 19th.

He was trying to join Denny Hamlin as the only drivers to make the championship field in their freshman seasons.

So, despite running among the top 10 for much of the race, the 22-year-old Californian was left outside of Sprint Cup's 10-race playoff system.

"It's been a decent season for us, so to miss the Chase is a little bit disappointing for us," Larson told Paste BN Sports on pit road after the race. "But it's still not terrible for a rookie season so far. It sucks now that we're 12th in points and the best we can finish is 17th. that's the crappy part about this points format. Maybe they can work it out for next year. Then again, maybe that makes teams strive for wins."

Instead, Larson will focus on finishing what appears to be a rookie-of-the-year campaign. He's got five top-fives to his credit for Chip Ganassi's team, including a runner-up finish at Fontana, a third at New Hampshire, a fourth at Watkins Glen and fifth-place finishes at Texas and Pocono.

"There are still 10 races to win," he said. "A lot of these racetracks we have left are good for me. Hopefully we can go out there and race our guts out and get some wins."

Larson raced as high as seventh place, including twice late in the race, before settling back to 11th at the end.

"We were close," he said. "We've just got to find a little bit more speed and we should be good. I'm so proud of my team. We've been working so hard all year long. l knew it was going to be tough. We were hoping for the 16 (Biffle) to have some trouble. He had about the night I figured he would, which was a smart night. He just stayed up there and made it into the Chase."

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