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Oddsmakers still believe Kyle Larson is the favorite to lift his second NASCAR Cup Series championship despite a day-ending mistake at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday.
Larson, who already qualified for the championship race at Phoenix via a win last week in Las Vegas, was running in second place behind Ryan Blaney late in Sunday’s race before he crashed trying to get on pit road.
The mistake sent Larson careening into Blaney, whom he just barely clipped, and then into the water barrels protection the entry to pit road.
Larson was unable to continue and finished the race in 34th position. While Blaney eventually finished as the runner-up to winner Christopher Bell, who also clinched one of the remaining spots in Phoenix’s final four.
“”I was just maximizing all I could. I didn’t expect him to slow down so early, was just trying to get to the yellow line as quickly as possible and felt like I was in control,” Larson said of the incident. “From there it just looks like I bombed it in there so I just need to look at some data and see where I was relative to pit road speed.”
He later apologized to Blaney and his team.
But despite the mistake, Larson is still the odds on favorite to lift the championship at Phoenix.
DraftKings currently lists Larson at +150 to win it all, ahead of Bell at +250 and Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron at +300.
FanDuel lists the same, while Blaney checks in as the fourth favorite on both lists at +900 and +1000 respective.
Larson, widely considered the most talented driver in the series, won his first championship in 2021. It was his first season driving for Hendrick Motorsports following a suspension for using a racial slur while on a video game stream the season prior.