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Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson made contact on the final lap at Kansas Speedway in Sunday’s (May 7) event, but the bigger story was the contact — a la fist-to-face — that Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson made on pit road after the race.
Was the confrontation between Chastain and Gragson warranted? How divisive will the Hamlin-Larson contact be as Hamlin ended up winning the race? Adam Cheek and Tanner Marlar discuss the incidents as well as another solid entry in the recent Kansas Speedway lore.
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Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
There was plenty of hard racing, & drivers pushing their luck a little too hard.
If the situation between Larson & Hamlin had been reversed. Hamlin would have been whining about it, & retaliating, for the rest of the season.
Larson was doing a good job of working with a car that was fading, but he just couldn’t keep Hamlin from getting to his back bumper. Anyone who has watched any racing, knew that Hamlin didn’t have time to set up a clean pass given the time remaining. So no surprises there.
As for Gregson, & Chastain, two sayings come to mind, one about glass houses, & the Biblical reference about casting the first stone.
I watched the incident, & thought Gregson should have been able to have kept it out of the wall, but none of us understands the aero influences with the current car. But touching the wall wouldn’t seem to have done any real harm. It was using the car as a weapon that lead to his retirement.
He’s always been a hot head in Xfinity, & he paid the price. He might want to look up the security guard & thank him.
His actions, both on track & after, were an over reaction, possibly fueled by his lack of success so far in Cup.
My biggest surprise, was that for the second time recently, Logano keeps getting bailed out by timely cautions.
No surprises there with Hamlin. Your right, Denny had every intention of doing just what he did. The author said contact between the cars. Hamlin ran into Larson and Larson had almost head on contact with the wall. That was the contact.
Agree 100%. And you know what? That’s cool, as long as Hamlin doesn’t cry the next time someone uses him up when neither guy wants to back down.
gragson will soon replace chastain as everyones verbal punching bag…history tells the story…look back at his xfinity career and how many altercations he had with drivers. Personally I think the kid comes off as smug like his other rookie buddy ty gibbs. I wish they would mess with harvick or someone who would humble them a little. As far as larson and hamlin, i don’t see anything wrong with the move hamlin made…Larson was lucky to hold him off as long as he did. Plus they’re good friends and wouldn’t put it past lasrson to do the same given the oppurtunity
Tell me when Larson has done the same thing on purpose. Give me ONE instance since Larson has been in cup. Thank you