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WISE Power 400 winner Kyle Larson refused to take sole blame for the contact he had with Chase Elliott during the dying stages of the race in Fontana, California.
The two drivers came together at the start of the 179th lap of the 400-mile race. Larson, who did not get a good run out of turn 3 and 4 was trying to side-draft Joey Logano, who was at the bottom of the oval track. At that point, Larson admitted to not paying attention to his mirrors as his attention was focussed on Logano, saying:
“I had a run, so I went to peel off, and as soon as I peeled off, my spotter is yelling, ‘Outside! Outside! Outside!’ And I had no clue he was even coming.”
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The Hendrick Motorsports driver later went on to express regret as it ended his team-mate's race. He admitted that he needed to pay more attention to his mirrors at that moment. Larson also claimed that his spotter should have been more pro-active in relaying information to the driver.
The 29 year-old explained the situation, saying:
“Yeah, I mean, I hate that I ended his day after they worked so hard to get back to the lead lap and back in contention to win, but it was just an honest mistake on probably both of our faults. 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.”
Watch what happened in the video below:
Ultimately, Kyle Larson and his side of the garage at Hendrick Motorsports were ready to take their fair share of the blame and put the incident behind them.
Kyle Larson on NASCAR Next Gen cars
Three races down in the 2022 season, drivers have a much better understanding of NASCAR Next Gen cars than ever before.
Kyle Larson elaborated on the topic after winning on Sunday for Hendrick Motorsports, saying:
“Yeah, it’s definitely edgy. Honestly I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. I thought dirty air was going to be really bad behind people, and it didn’t seem way worse or different than normal. So that was encouraging.”
The win on Sunday did not come easy for Larson as he made contact with his team-mate Chase Elliot during the final few laps of the race. Unlike Elliot, who had to retire, he managed to continue on and win.
