"That's not what I think is ideal racing": Kyle Larson's post-Bristol take challenged by Bubba Wallace's spotter

Following his Bristol win, Kyle Larson made a big claim about how he won the race. The Hendrick Motorsports driver toppled and created a few records on his way to winning the playoffs race on the short track, most notable of which was him leading 462 laps of 500.

Speaking after the race, Kyle Larson opened up on why, in his opinion, the night race at Bristol was much better than the spring race. Larson said that as a driver, he would rather run 100% of all the laps than run 50% and manage a race.

"I don’t think that’s much of a race. I grew up racing different stuff, you know, where you do push the whole race, but I don't know. I think that version of Bristol is way more exciting," Kyle Larson added.

During a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Larson's comments were a subject of discussion.

And Bubba Wallace's spotter, Freddie Kraft, shared his take on the same; on one hand, he justified what Larson said, but on the other, he shared why it's not good for NASCAR racing.

"If I had just led 462 laps I'd have said, 'Please don't change a f**king thing!' That's not what I think is ideal racing for us. You want to have every chance where you can just manage your car, can't just run 500 qualifying laps. That's just the way I feel. Any time we have a race where we're just running wide open all the time, not saving anything, the race kinda s**ks, and the race on Saturday night, s**ked. It's because this guy led 460 laps of 500 which I think was most since Cale Yarborough since 1977," he described. [27:30]

The spotter said that he comes from a world of modified racing, where one has to manage their tires and their car, all of which were missing from the recent Bristol race.

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Kyle Larson wasn't buying NASCAR fans' verdict on the Bristol night race

After the race at Bristol, NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck put out his weekly race poll, asking fans whether the race was good or not. In the case of the last race of the Round of 16 playoffs, only 27.2% of the fans were of the opinion that Bristol was a good race.

This, as Gluck mentioned, made it the lowest-ranked Bristol race in the 19 recorded races in the poll's history.

However, Kyle Larson had a theory of a scenario in which, had it happened, the number of people who liked the race would've flipped.

"Lead 450 laps but have 2 overtime restarts and lose and I guarantee the percentage is flip flopped. That’s our fan base," Larson said.

It's worth mentioning that the previous lowest race was the 2020 All-Star race. But even that one wasn't as low as 27.2%. In fact, it was more of a divisive race, as 51.7% of the fans said it was a good race.

In the realm of short track races, the recent Bristol race ranked 55th of the 56 races in the poll, with the lowest being the 2022 Martinsville race, 18.7%.