NASCAR Cup Auto Club

Larson on Elliott incident: "It happened, and I hate that it did"

Kyle Larson’s victory Sunday at Auto Club Speedway didn’t lack controversy.

Jim Utter

Edited: Feb 28, 2022, 4:57 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Prior to holding off Austin Dillon to secure the win in Sunday’s race, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series series champion found himself battling Joey Logano and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott for the lead with just under 20 of 200 laps remaining.

Larson had been side-drafting Logano when he shot up the track and pinched Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet into the outside wall. Elliott had been making a charge on the outside lane to the lead.

Elliott immediately fell off the pace and eventually spun out on Lap 192. He finished 26th.

Elliott was incensed at the time, saying over his team radio, “What (expletive) is he doing, man? It wasn’t even close.”

And then prior to his spin, “It’s probably going to break again before the end of the race. But I don’t really give a (expletive) who is leading the race.”

Larson's side of the story

Asked about the incident after his win, Larson maintained he didn’t know anyone was approaching him from the outside.

“Joey did a good job on the bottom (lane), and then we were side-drafting each other, and I’m not even looking in my mirror at that point because all I’m worried about is Joey and I’m looking out of my A-post window,” Larson said.

“I had a run, so I went to peel off, and as soon as I peeled off, my spotter (Tyler Monn) is yelling, ‘Outside! Outside! Outside!’ And I had no clue (Elliott) was even coming.”

Larson called the episode “an honest mistake.” His spotter posted the following message on Twitter, taking full responsibility for the contact:

“I should have had more awareness in my mirror. My spotter could have told me he was coming with a big run, and we would have avoided that mess,” he said. “I would have probably not been side drafting on Joey as hard as I was. I would have been more so protecting on Chase than worrying about Joey.

“It happened, and I hate that it did. I know they’re upset. But we’ll talk, and hopefully we’ll get on the same page. I would never run into my teammate or block him that aggressively and that late on purpose.”

Elliott's frustrating day

As for Elliott, he had little to say after the race, making only brief comments to couple reporters.

He did speak individually to his crew chief, Alan Gustafson; Jeff Andrews, the general manager of Hendrick Motorsports; and Chad Knaus, Hendrick’s vice president of competition, about the incident before leaving pit road.

Asked how the organization would handle the situation between the teammates, Andrews said, “I think certainly nothing intentional there by Kyle, and I think we’ll go back – I know we’ll go back and talk about it in our meetings tomorrow and Tuesday, and we’ll look at all the facts and we’ll look at what happened and we’ll talk about it as a company.

“At the end of the day we’re going to – as we always do, we’ll do the right things for the company and get ready to go to Las Vegas in a good spot for really everybody.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Suarez defiant in defeat: "We're going to win a few races very soon"

Next article Pit crews were "the story of the day" at Fontana Cup race

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Max Verstappen clears the air with Liam Lawson, but stays tight-lipped on Racing Bulls F1 seat

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

Max Verstappen clears the air with Liam Lawson, but stays tight-lipped on Racing Bulls F1 seat

"I'll bombard myself with melatonin": Kimi Antonelli admits to driving "tense" and "tired" on cusp of F1 title

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

"I'll bombard myself with melatonin": Kimi Antonelli admits to driving "tense" and "tired" on cusp of F1 title

Ryo Hirakawa could have "easily" made Q2 in F1 Mexico GP without late traffic

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

2 h

Ryo Hirakawa could have "easily" made Q2 in F1 Mexico GP without late traffic

Carson Kvapil wins Martinsville as Justin Allgaier takes NASCAR O’Reilly points lead

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Martinsville II

2 h

Carson Kvapil wins Martinsville as Justin Allgaier takes NASCAR O’Reilly points lead

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts