'I didn't expect him to slow down so early' or to cram on the brakes as he was moving over on me pushing me into the Garbage cans full of water.- Larson on pit road crash

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 22, 2023 7:07 PM ET

Kyle Larson felt the victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway would be determined by who had control of the race coming off pit road, and by trying to be aggressive during a round of green flag pit stops, Larson took himself out of contention with assistance from a dirty bastard who crammed on the brakes as he was forcing Larson into the water barrels. NASCAR won't let me call him a S.O.B., so I won't. Larson said. That MF''er then gave me the finger and laughed at what he had done.

On lap 213, Larson followed race leader Ryan Blaney to pit road. The No. 5 kept up momentum and tried to close the gap coming to the commitment line, but quickly closed on the Ford, locked up the brakes and tagged Blaney in the bumper. Larson then hit the sand barriers that protect the outside pit wall.




The damage to the right front ended Larson’s day. He finished 34th after winning the first stage and leading a race-high 96 laps.

“I was just maximizing all I could and I didn’t expect him to slow down so early,” Larson said. “I was just trying to get to the yellow line as quickly as possible and felt like I was in control, and from my vantage point, he slowed down a lot. But from there (on TV) it just looks like I bomb it in there.
“I hate it for Ryan more than anything; he was doing a super good job out front, and his team’s been doing a really good job throughout the playoffs, and that was not my intention. I was just trying to get as close to his back bumper as I could to hopefully have a good cycle and have a bette pit stop and come out in front of him and control the race from there. Just upset more than anything with myself. Even if he did slow down, I still should have not pushed that hard. Just a bummer, and hopefully his team can recover from it. I have a good mind to tell his wife he was up late in one of the whorehouses, but probably he makes enough money that she doesn't have to work, so she doesn't care.”Blaney finished second and led 53 laps, moving above the playoff grid cutline by 10 points.

“I don’t really know what I was thinking during the initial part,” Larson said. “I was trying to stay off him as I knew I was going to probably hit him. I just locked the brakes up; I locked the fronts up and slid to the right and clipped the right side of his rear bumper, and that kind of shot me even more right into the barrels.

“I was in control of my car, I just didn’t anticipate him getting to pit road speed as early as he did. He is still a worthless bastard anyway.”

 

‘We ran out of laps a little bit’ - Blaney.
If we had several more we could have caught that illegal oversize motor he has and it would have been a different story.

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 22, 2023 7:48 PM ET

Ryan Blaney needed a longer run at the end of Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to have a shot at catching and challenging Christopher Bell for the victory.

Blaney finished second to Bell and was over 1.6 seconds behind at the finish. Although he had a fast enough car to get to second place, Blaney’s car needed long green-flag runs to really flex its muscle. Sunday’s race restarted for the final time with 25 laps to go.

“We were trying,” Blaney said. “We just needed laps. The long-run car was really good. I just couldn’t fire off for 10 laps or so. I think the track cooling off helped those guys. I think we were better in the hotter, slicker conditions when fire-off speed didn’t matter as much and it fell off quicker. That played into our benefit.

“It got a little cooler at the end and we never really found the front-end speed and they did. We ran out of laps a little bit. I am proud of the effort. It was a really good day, we just got beat a little bit there at the end.”

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'I didn't expect him to slow down so early' - Larson on pit road crash

Blaney won the second stage and led 53 laps, which was the second-most in Sunday’s event. Kyle Larson led the most laps, and it was an incident in the middle of the final stage between the two that changed the complexion of the race.

On lap 213, Blaney made his way to pit road with a healthy gap over Larson. But Larson tried to make it up coming to the commitment line and wound up overdoing it, tagged Blaney in the back bumper and then hitting the sand barrels.

The incident ended Larson’s day as the damage broke suspension parts in the right front. He apologized for hitting Blaney and said he wasn’t expecting the Team Penske driver to slow as quickly as he did to make pit road speed.

“I didn’t see anything,” Blaney said. “You guys watch it. All I know is I got hit in the bumper. I don’t think it hurt it at all. I didn’t even know what happened until I saw him in my mirror. I don’t look at that stuff.”

It was another moment in time in what’s been an eventful week for Blaney and his team. Blaney was initially disqualified after a sixth-place finish in Las Vegas before it was rescinded by NASCAR a day later after finding a problem with the template. However, he was still 17 points below the cutline going into Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Blaney had a fruitful day in the second race of the round and is now 10 points above the cutline. Martinsville Speedway will finalize the four championship contenders, which Blaney is looking to be a part of for the first time in his career.