AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kyle Larson climbed out of his beat-up No. 5 Chevrolet with a dejected look on his face, stewing about a 34th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway after a flat front right tire caused him to hit the wall.
Six weeks of excellence in NASCAR's playoffs had disappeared in the span of a few miserable hours in the desert on Sunday.
Even before the tire mishap, Larson struggled at Phoenix Raceway, qualifying 22nd on Saturday. He wasn't any better during the race, limping around the mile tri-oval in the back of the pack before the flat tire that almost seemed like a merciful ending.
Tyler Reddick won at Phoenix for his sixth victory of the season. Ryan Blaney was second, Chase Elliott finished third and Christopher Bell was fourth.
“I didn’t expect to be good, but I didn’t expect to be that bad either,” Larson said. "It wasn’t a lot of fun today, but we were just trying to salvage what we could of the day. We’ll go to Talladega and try to forget about today and get back after it. We’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”
Forgetting about Sunday's miserable performance might be easier said than done, but it would be silly to say Larson's chase for a third Cup Series championship is finished.
The Hendrick Motorsports team still has a 5-point lead over Bell heading into Talladega next weekend. Briscoe is in third, 24 points back, while Denny Hamlin (31), Blaney (40), Joey Logano (44) and Reddick (56) are still in the hunt with three races to go — largely because Larson had such a bad day.
The No. 5's free fall was just as eye-catching as his previous dominance in NASCAR's postseason. His average finish of 2.83 was the best pace over the first six postseason races since the “Chase” was introduced in 2004. He's won two races and finished second in two others.
It was a stellar run reminiscent of Jimmie Johnson’s peak in the 2000s.
Now most of that momentum is gone. It's back to the garage to figure out what went wrong.
“We’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt,” Larson said.
Reddick's No. 45 Toyota has newfound momentum heading into Talladega. His 23XI team had the hottest car in the sport early in the year, winning four of the season’s first six races, but had a big lull over the summer.
He's back in the hunt for title — though still a considerable long shot.
“We just had to keep showing up, stay focused on the details,” Reddick said. “We did a good job of just fighting through the things that we needed to work on today, just making the right calls at the right time.”
Briscoe is still lurking as well after back-to-back wins in Las Vegas and Charlotte vaulted him back into contention. Hamlin — who is still looking for his first Cup Series championship — finished 28th in Phoenix after a one-two punch of bad luck caused by a flat tire and then a speeding violation on pit road as he struggled to control the car.
The No. 11 Toyota still made up ground in the chase from a points perspective, even though he fell from second to fourth in the standings.
Blaney and Logano had a good run in Phoenix for Joe Gibbs Racing and have plenty of confidence heading to Talladega. And then there's Bell, who finished fourth in the desert and is now just 5 points back of Larson.
Buckle up. NASCAR's postseason is wide open.
“It’s going to be a battle, that’s for sure,” Bell said. “We’re right there in it. Really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in stages.”
Toyota continued its outstanding season by winning the NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturers' Championship after winning 18 races so far this season. It is Toyota's first manufacturers' title and most single-season wins since 2019.
Toyota has five of the top nine drivers in the playoff standings, including Bell at No. 2, Briscoe at No. 3, Hamlin at No. 4, Reddick at No. 7 and Ty Gibbs at No. 9. Bubba Wallace is 12th.
See AP’s full auto racing coverage here
Denny Hamlin (11) leads Tyler Reddick on the 30th lap during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Tyler Reddick celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Chase Briscoe (19) beats Christopher Bell (20) to the finish line to win a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
PARIS (AP) — Paris police issued an overnight curfew on Monday in two areas of the French capital, after a weekend marred by France’s worst rioting in years that targeted city halls, other public buildings and thousands of businesses across the country.
The order aims to protect “people and property from the violence and looting,” the Paris police statement said.
The curfew prohibits anyone from entering or remaining on the Place de la République, where rioting took place Saturday, and the shopping neighborhood of Les Halles, which has been subject to looting.
The curfew will be in effect from 11 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. In addition, gatherings and demonstrations are banned from 8 p.m., the Paris police said.
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had called for “very limited” and “localized” curfews.
In northern France, local authorities imposed a curfew for children and teenagers under age 18 in several cities, including Lille, starting from Monday and for the next two days from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Nice, on the French Riviera, also imposed an overnight curfew for minors from 9 p.m.
Lecornu defended police handling of the unrest, saying that “despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed, and that is a miracle.”
He said that details of the curfews would be announced later Monday after consultations with mayors.
Mass protests in France are often tainted by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police. Saturday’s unrest recalled the riots that followed the fatal police shooting of a teenager in 2023, when authorities imposed local curfews, and violence during the yellow vest movement that began in 2018 over fuel prices and broader economic grievances.
The prime minister's instructions come after Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered his resignation Sunday. But President Emmanuel Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context,” Macron's office said in a statement Monday.
He instructed Nuñez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence,” the statement said.
Macron also asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible” to put an end to the violence.
On Sunday evening, groups set fire to trash bins, bicycles and other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities. That followed the violence during nationwide protests Saturday against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 2,400 people were arrested across the country.
Authorities estimated Monday that at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted in several cities.
In Marseille, the prefect banned any protest or other gatherings from noon to 8 p.m. Monday.
“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening,” Nuñez said on France Inter radio. “Now the real issue is ensuring that this doesn’t happen again. … We obviously need to be better at anticipating the kind of mobilization that is unfolding."
Nuñez blamed the violence on “hordes of troublemakers and looters” and “far-left activists,” and said that police strategy needs to be adapted “in the face of extremely mobile groups.”
Authorities said that groups of hundreds of people sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and other public offices.
Nuñez acknowledged that authorities had “lost control” in some major cities on Saturday.
“You can’t look shopkeepers in the eye when hundreds of businesses have been looted and say we haven’t lost control in some of these major cities,” Nuñez said.
Flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, in central France, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
On Monday, cleanup crews and firefighters cleared shattered glass and other debris from the streets of Paris.
Ouri Zagoury, owner of a video game shop near Paris' Place de la République, said that he closed the store Saturday afternoon, but then saw looters forcing their way in on surveillance cameras.
“There were so many people coming in and out. And even though I called the police, they said not to intervene, that they would come, but they never did, which is another problem," Zagoury said.
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, pointed to the government's failure to prevent violence.
“The government has failed, the head of state has failed in his essential duty of protecting the French people,” he told reporters at the party's headquarters.
“I call on the people of France now, beyond their right to protest, to use their voting power,” Bardella said. He is campaigning alongside far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose polling numbers have suggested for months that she's the front-runner in next spring's presidential election.
Tom Nouvian, Oleg Cetinic and Nicolas Garriga in Paris, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.
A woman walks her dog past a looted store the day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A protester holds a placard with a photo of French president Emmanuel Macron and a guillotine in front of a burning tourism office during a demonstration against rising living costs and in solidarity with students' grievances in Lyon, France, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
A car burns at Republique square during a protest against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A firefighter extinguishes a fire during clashes with police a day after a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A protester runs through tear gas while a flea market is taking place during clashes between protestors and police officers in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A firefighter extinguishes a fire during clashes between protestors and police in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A man tries to extinguish a fire during clashes between protestors and police officers in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Youths break a store window during clashes between protestors and police in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
