Kyle Larson did more harm than good during the Xfinity Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday. The Hendrick Motorsports driver, making a cameo for his team in the No. 17 car, wrecked JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier after a late restart.
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Allgaier’s teammate, Connor Zilisch, possibly had the best view of the incident. The 19-year-old was in third place when Larson and Allgaier raced wheel-to-wheel right in front of him. On the restart, Allgaier opted for the outside line, and Larson joined alongside him on the front row.
Larson suddenly got loose in Turn 2 and clipped Allgaier. The contact sent Allgaier’s car into the wall, ending his day. Larson was able to continue and finished fourth. Zilisch ended up as the race winner, collecting JRM’s 100th Xfinity victory. After the race, he commented on the accident between Larson and Allgaier.
“Kyle doesn’t race these cars every week,” said Zilisch. “So, when someone puts it on your door in a Cup [Series] car, the guy on the outside gets tight. And when you get someone to put their car on your door in the Xfinity [Series] car, the guy on the inside is susceptible to spinning out. And when you don’t race every week, you kind of just build habits.”
Zilisch continued to talk about what each driver could have done differently to avoid the mishap. Allgaier has 25 wins for JR Motorsports, and getting the team’s 100th victory would have been a remarkable and fitting achievement for him. Sadly, the stars just didn’t align for him.
Larson admitted the mistake he made and apologized to Allgaier and his team. “You never want to do that to somebody racing full-time like that, so I wish I could have done some things differently,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t really know what I could have done right there other than to maybe help my angle into (Turn) 2 a little bit. Again, sorry to Justin and the #7 team,” added Larson.
The race marked Larson’s fourth Xfinity Series start this year. He’s won two of the races. Whether he’ll return for more before the season ends remains to be seen.
