NASCAR: Larson's finish helps Chase chances

Kyle Larson finished fifth on Sunday in the Brickyard 400 and it was a result that went a long way toward sending him to the Chase for the Championship.

The result catapulted the third-year driverfour spots in the championship standings to 15th and to the final spot on the provisional Chase Grid. He entered the weekend at Indianapolis 25 points out and left 10 points to the good.

For Larson, the weekend started with a 10th-place qualifying effort, which far exceeded his 17.1 average over the first 20 races of the season. He kept his nose clean during the course of 425 miles and was rewarded with only his fourth top-5 finish of the season.

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"I don't know that I was expecting much more than a top-5, honestly," Larson said. "I didn't know that we would have that kind of speed in our car. And we were probably a fifth- to seventh-place car. But I was able to get some good restarts there at the end and it turned into a solid day for the whole Target team. The Energizer Chevy was good from the start, which helps. We qualified good for once, and it was just a solid weekend. It was a good one."

Of course, part of Larson's ascent can be attributed to Dale Earnhardt Jr. missing his second consecutive race with concussion symptoms. But the damage to his own playoff hopes were marginalized by so many on the bubble running into problems during the race.

Other bubble drivers Ryan Blaney and Trevor Bayne were both involved in crashes, which allowed Larson to leapfrog each of them in the standings. Earnhardt should easily be within a race of the cutoff on points if he is able to return after next weekend's race at Pocono Raceway.

Here is the updated Chase bubble with five races remaining in the regular season. Drivers without a win will either need to win a race or close the gap on points before the start of the Chase in September:

15. Jamie McMurray +34
16. Kyle Larson +10

17. Kasey Kahne -10
18. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -11
19. Trevor Bayne -15
20. Ryan Blaney -22