Drivers seeking to avoid elimination from playoffs

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson doesn’t care that his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet team lost its appeal of a penalty NASCAR gave it this week.

The 10 points his team was docked for violating the damaged vehicle policy didn’t change his mindset for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, the second elimination race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

“Obviously, a 10-point penalty doesn’t help, but I felt like with even being 26 points back, we were gonna probably have to go into this week and get a win to make it to the next round,” Larson said Friday at Kansas Speedway.

The only difference now is with the penalty from last week’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, Larson is 36 points below the cutoff mark. Before the penalty, he could have snuck into the Round of 8 with a strong finish if other playoff drivers faltered. But now, he’s actually in a must-win situation to advance, along with Alex Bowman, who’s 68 points outside of the top-8 drivers.

“I’m frustrated that we haven’t won yet, that’s a big thing for me,” Bowman said Friday at the track. In his first fulltime season behind the wheel of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, he’s still looking for his first career Cup Series victory.

His best finish at Kansas was seventh in 2016 when he was filling in for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., but he earned two ARCA wins on the track.