One of the biggest crashes at the Iowa Corn 350 involved one of the sport’s most prominent drivers, as Kyle Larson saw his day ended after careening hard into the wall during Stage 2.
Larson was turned by Daniel Suárez, then made heavy contact in front of Denny Hamlin before being turned into the wall.
After the race, Suárez had a chance to view the replay and gave his explanation of what he believed happened during the Stage 2 collision.
“It was a little bit tricky there,” he said. “Definitely Kyle had one of the best cars there. The last thing I want is to wreck one of my Chevy teammates.
“During the race I was a little bit confused, I didn’t really have an opinion because I didn’t know if I went up or he came down. I just saw the replay for the very first time and I thought that I definitely went up and I made contact with him, and I also noticed that the 6 (Brad Keselowski), the car that was on the outside, he had like a quarter of a car of gap to the wall, then Kyle had another quarter of a car from the 6. So they were doing their thing, trying to pinch everyone down, and I was expecting everyone to be a little bit closer to the wall and I just didn’t have enough room. But it wasn’t definitely my intention, but I feel like it was a racing thing.”
The No. 99 car driver said he believed Keselowski was trying to pinch Larson and Larson was trying to pinch back, thus leading to the setup for the crash.
Larson’s day was ended by the crash, on a day where he was proving as competitive as anyone in the field.
Initially Larson and his team hoped to keep the car on the track and racing, taking it down to pit road for tires and an adjustment. But he had to go up against the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock and eventually his day was ended.
Larson had been having a good race, too. He battled Ryan Blaney back and forth for the Stage 1 lead, and though Blaney ultimately won the stage, it was clear that Larson had one of the fastest cars in the field.
That was proven when Kyle Larson thought he had a flat tire, pitted, went to the back of the field, then still quickly worked his way back to the front of the pack.
All things considered, the disappointing finish for Larson won’t put a huge damper on things.
He entered the day as the Cup Series points leader with 561 points, having won three races already this season to lock in his place in the playoffs. After the day’s results, Larson slipped to second on 583 points, just eight points behind Chase Elliott.
Meanwhile, Daniel Suárez finished with a top 10, ending the day in ninth place.
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