Denny Hamlin was impressed with how Kyle Larson‘s No. 5 car ran during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway. On Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental podcast, he talked about Larson’s day on the track.
“Usually when you have surfaces like these, racing is tough and passing is tough,” Hamlin said about the track. “[Larson] went by me, I still had a 30th place car at the time. But he went by me, and the next you know, I look up five laps later and he’s 15 cars ahead of me. He had a car that obviously was dialed in great during that portion of the race and drove right back to the front, which gives you hope that hey if you get your car a little better, you will be able to pass today.”
Hamlin also talked about Larson’s struggles after a strong start. “I didn’t quite understand because I saw that he came out first or second or something like that, and then he pitted again,” Hamlin said. “I was like, ‘Man, that’s weird. What happened there?’ He was flying through the field.”
Larson looked like he was going to win his second consecutive race. However, the 2021 Cup Series champion got into a wreck with Hamlin and Daniel Suárez during the final stage of Sunday’s race, leading to him finishing 34th. Overall, Larson led for 80 laps and won the second stage.
Kyle Larson talks wreck that involved Denny Hamlin
“If I could see a replay, I would tell you what went wrong, if it was my fault or what,” Larson said on pit road post-race, per NASCAR.com. “I mean, obviously if I don’t go three-wide there, there’s probably no crash but I’m probably running sixth into Turn 1 so, but either way sixth is better than crash. Yeah, I don’t know. Like I said, I think just, I should have been more aware of who I was around. Suárez is really aggressive, and I don’t know. He was probably just pushing and got loose, I’m guessing, underneath me.”
Hamlin finished 24th on Sunday. It comes after suffering a DNF last week at Sonoma due to issues with his engine. As far as the Cup Series standings go, Hamlin has the No. 3 spot while Larson dropped down from No. 1 to No. 2. The top driver in the standings is Chase Elliott who finished third on Sunday.
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