Kyle Larson addresses Chase Elliott pit road incident: 'I understand why he was mad'
Even though he won just a week ago, Kyle Larson almost had a second victory in his hands. It just wasn’t meant to be. A bad restart while he was leading led to Larson falling through the NASCAR field and down to about P19 at one point. He would soon fight his way to the front.
In fact, Kyle Larson put himself in position to potentially win this race. As cars peeled off pit road, Larson was in the front group. He was also pinched by Brad Keselowski and into his own teammate, Chase Elliott.
Elliott then tapped Larson as they got back onto the track. Then, he had a discussion with his teammate after the race. The No. 5 driver talked about it after the checkered flag.
“We were just, from my vantage point, I knew we were three wide leaving, and I knew – well I didn’t know at the time,” explained Larson after the race. “The 6 [Keselowski] is pitted in front of us and I’m just trying to leave as much space as I can. He’s coming out into the lane because the 6, he wants to slow us down. I tried to leave as much space as I could, obviously, I made contact with him [Elliott] but I feel like if I didn’t I was going to clobber the 6 in the right front. Thought the safest bet for all of us was for me to squeeze out a little bit.
“I understand why he is mad, or was mad in the moment. I hope when he sees the replay he understands I didn’t have any space, or not much just inches. So just a bummer but I’m glad neither of us got tore up there and we could get a good finish.”
Kyle Larson picks up P4 finish at Kansas
The final restart at Kansas was a wild one. Denny Hamlin was leading the race when Chris Buescher had a flat and fell back to bring the caution out. With a ton of teams taking just two tires, Hamlin had to fight his way through a small pack. That included Kyle Larson.
Larson, who doesn’t give Hamlin any room on the track since Pocono. He definitely didn’t give him any room today. Hamlin got hung up behind him and Tyler Reddick sped away to the win. Larson finished P4 while Elliott came in P6.
Two races into the NASCAR Playoffs we have two different winners. No spoilers yet. Larson has a spot in the Round of 12 but will be thinking about what could have been if he executed better at Kansas.
Kyle Larson had an up-and-down day, but managed to salvage a top-5 finish out of it. He is showing that he will be one to beat this year and he is going to be in contention for the Championship 4 in Phoenix.