While other drivers may hem, haw or even outright lie, Kyle Larson fessed up that he was totally to blame for making contact with Ryan Blaney near the end of Stage 2 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis.
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“I just misjudged it,” Larson said of his mistake. “The lap before I went in and I was able to get to his door and get him tight. And then the next time, I was trying to do the same thing and wasn’t going to get there, so I was going to try and tuck back in line and just clipped him.
“So yeah, I’m sure he should be upset… It wasn’t anything malicious at all and yeah obviously, I probably hurt his second stage and who knows, potentially maybe his finish. But it wasn’t on purpose.”
In the end, Larson’s inadvertent police-like PIT, i.e. precision immobilization technique maneuver ultimately proved to be no harm, no foul as both cars suffered little damage, and Larson actually wound up harming himself, as Blaney rallied back to finish fourth in the race, while Larson was forced to settle for a 12th-place showing.
“I got turned around,” Blaney said of Larson. “He made a mistake but I paid the penalty for it. I am happy we were able to rebound and come away with a pretty good finish.”
While Blaney finished higher in the final outcome, Larson still is ahead of Blaney in the updated Cup standings: Race winner Denny Hamlin took over the top spot, while Larson is third (60 points behind Hamlin) and Blaney is fifth, 18 points behind Larson.
Larson hopes Blaney doesn’t hold the incident against him going forward. “I think we’re both professionals,” Larson said.
“Obviously, I’m sure (he was) mad at the moment and probably said a lot of things on the radio and whatnot. I would have been upset as well.”
The No. 5 HMS driver justified, saying, “I hope he knows it was an accident, although it might not look like an accident. I wasn’t meaning to get into him. So, if he wants to retaliate, I understand. But I don’t think it would get to that point.”
It doesn’t appear Blaney will harbor any hard feelings going forward.
“Next week we just want to go run another race and run where we should run,” he said. “We will approach it like a normal weekend and see where we end up after Bristol.”
