During Stage 2 of Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, Denny Hamlin got into the rear of Kyle Larson and pushed him up the track.
At the time, Hamlin was already a lap down and Larson was the leader, making any contact between the two to be quite bizarre. Larson said afterwards he didn’t believe the contact from Hamlin was intentional, which Hamlin later confirmed on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. Hamlin said he “misjudged the center roll speed” of his car, as well as Larson’s, causing the unintentional contact.
“No, it was unintentional,” Hamlin said. “I clearly misjudged the center roll speed of my car and his combined. But he slid us in [Turns] 3 and 4 — I wasn’t mad about that at all, I’m a lap down so I gotta get out of the way — we went into Turn 1, I was somewhat close to him but then I was trying to roll really fast center speed and it looked like he had his hands full all the way into the center. And then I coasted into him.
“I thought I throttled up early, but I was just rolling speed through the center and clearly misjudged because I was trying to turn down a little bit below him, but I think at the time, he was a little bit free in the entry and then obviously got really free when I ran into the back of him. I’m glad he saved it for sure.”
Kyle Larson breaks down wreck with Denny Hamlin that ended his chance at winning in Iowa
Unfortunately for Hamlin and Larson, it wouldn’t be the last time they’d be involved in an on-track incident together. Later in the race, with both Hamlin and Larson running in the top-10, Daniel Suarez got into the left rear of Larson, sending him back up the track. He collected Hamlin, which negatively impacted both of their days.
Larson, who at times looked to have the best car at Iowa, finished P34. Hamlin, meanwhile, pitted to make adjustments and finished P24. Larson admitted he maybe shouldn’t have gone three-wide at that point in the race but was looking to get past as many cars as possible during that particular run.
“I haven’t seen a replay yet,” Larson said. “I guess I could have just not gone to the middle and been more patient knowing how fast my car was and knowing who I was around. Wanted to get as many cars as I could in the beginning of that little run, and it probably ended up biting me.”
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