WATCH: NASCAR teammates Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson create controversy after collision
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson collided in the final laps of Sunday’s Auto Club Speedway race, sparking a controversy between the two. Larson, NASCAR’s defending champion, defended his lead with two cars coming up behind him, choosing to slide up the track and knock his teammate into the wall.
Chase Elliott immediately let his feelings be known over the radio, throwing a string of expletives about Kyle Larson toward his own crew chief. While the block was legal, it was not well received.
The contact with the wall caused Elliott’s car to fall off drastically and put him at risk of falling a lap behind. As Larson approached him from the rear, rather than allow him by there was quite a bit of blocking which kept others in the race.
Although Larson said over his radio that he was not aware Elliott’s 9 car was above him at the time, the explanation did not appease the man voted NASCAR’s most popular driver. Despite eventually going a lap down, effectively ending his race, the controversy was just getting started.
“I would never run into my teammate or block that aggressively and that late on purpose,” Larson repeated in the post-race press conference, via The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck.
Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson controversy
After struggling all day with a malfunctioning car which spun on more than one occasion, Chase Elliott made one last spin as Larson separated from the field inside 10 laps to go. While there was clear evidence his car had been prone to sliding out in the corner all race, many speculated that the driver brought out the caution intentionally to spite his teammate.
A radio transmission immediately following the yellow flag showed how angry Elliott remained as he came onto pit road before watching Larson win.
“Somebody watch the replay and make sure that I’m seeing things straight – that I was way in there on that deal – before I say anything I shouldn’t”
Someone from Elliott’s team, presumably crew chiefs Alan Gustafson, responded, “yeah man, it’s what you saw. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
While Elliott declined to speak openly about the series of controversial incidents after the race, he did say the spin was not on purpose. He reiterated that a car malfunction caused multiple issues on the day. Motorsport.com’s Jim Utter also reports that Elliott spoke with Hendrick Motorsports Vice President of Competition Chad Knaus immediately following the race.