Kyle Larson had one of, if not the best car during Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway.
And for the early part of the race, it seemed as if Larson would have a great shot at picking up win No. 4 on the season and his second straight at that. But on Lap 219-of-350, Larson’s day was ruined. Larson, looking to race his way back to the front, attempted to make it three-wide coming off Turn 4. Unfortunately for Larson, Daniel Suarez made contact with his left rear, sending him into the wall, as well as Denny Hamlin.
Denny Hamlin analyzes Kyle Larson’s role in Lap 219 accident
Hamlin discussed the wreck on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, saying that Larson is partly to blame for being over aggressive at that point in the race.
“That’s probably the only thing that Kyle is second guessing and you heard him say in his interview, ‘I probably could’ve been more patient and not put myself three-wide in the middle there.’ But he’s trying to get back to the front as quick as possible,” Hamlin said. “But certainly, you feel like with as fast as his car was and he was that day, did he have to go get two cars right in that corner? Probably not, but that’s hindsight. 90% of the time it works, and you go on, you’re unscathed and you just gained multiple spots on a restart.
“It’s hard to second guess that for sure if you see a gap and an opening, usually you take it because you don’t think about ‘well this person is likely to midjudge the corner and run into me.’ Of course, you always have to take into account the people you’re around when you do decide to put yourself in a vulnerable spot. It’s just one of those things where certainly the five team’s banging their heads against the hauler door because they clearly had one of the best if not the best car and got a bad finish out of it.”
Kyle Larson explains what happened in Lap 219 accident
Larson agreed with Hamlin’s assessment. Speaking after the race, 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.”
Larson finished P34, tied for his worst finish of the season.
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