MADISON, Ill. — While Denny Hamlin was celebrating a win at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday (Sept. 7), Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney participated in an uncomfortable conversation together.
The two NASCAR Cup Series champions both finished inside the top 12 of the Enjoy Illinois 300, with Blaney taking fourth and Larson 12th. They both likely have enough points to advance to the next round of the playoffs with one race remaining in the Round of 16.
But instead their conversation centered around what happened on lap 136 of the 240-lapper at Gateway.
“I just asked him what I did to deserve getting turned, and he said he made a mistake,” Blaney said.
In the closing laps of stage 2, Larson and Blaney were engaged in a tough battle within the top five.
“The first time I got to his inside, I was expecting him to, not necessarily let me go and he left me room, but I ran into [turn] 1 hard, and he chased me in and then I was just sideways underneath him,” Larson said. “And I was like, ‘OK, I guess we’re going to be racing hard for this position going forward,’ and we did.
“And it just led to me making contact with him a few laps later.”
Larson drifted from the bottom of the track to the top in turn 4, clipping the No. 12 and sending Blaney spinning.
“He’s got 50 feet underneath him of racetrack,” Blaney said. “I’m as high as I can go, and, yeah, it surprised me pretty hard when Timmy [Fedewa, spotter] all of a sudden was kind of, ‘Left rear, left rear,’ and then I got turned around.”
Larson was apologetic afterward and chalked the contact up to a mistake on his end.
“I misjudged it,” Larson said. “The lap before, I went in and I was able to get to his door and get him tight. And then the next time, I was trying to do the same thing and wasn’t going to get there, so I was going to try and tuck back in line and just clipped him. So yeah, I’m sure he should be upset.”
Blaney didn’t hit anything and no serious damage was done to the No. 12, as evidenced by his climb back up to the fourth position where he finished.
“Obviously, he was, I’m sure, mad at the moment and probably said a lot of things on the radio and whatnot, but I would have been upset as well,” Larson said.
Blaney is known for having rage-filled rants on the radio and then cooling off once he gets out of the car. But with this incident, in fact, he didn’t even seem that angry in the heat of the moment. When his team told him to calm down, all he wanted to talk about was where he was supposed to line up.
But as soon as the Team Penske driver climbed out of his car, he made his way toward Larson. He had to wait for a while to speak to the Hendrick Motorsports driver due to Larson doing a media bullpen session, but Blaney eventually got to the bottom of what happened and got to speak his piece.
“I don’t think he did it on purpose, but still, at the end of the day, I got spun around.,” Blaney said. “Just talking it out. At least we’re able to recover. If we wouldn’t have recovered as well as we did, it probably would have been a different conversation.
“But I just was trying to get an understanding. Because from my seat, he came from all the way on the bottom of the racetrack, all the way up and hit me in the left rear.”
Blaney and Larson both said there was nothing malicious about the hit. While Blaney probably won’t retaliate on the Larson in the future, it could lead to a difference in a way the two race. Larson noted he didn’t think Blaney would retaliate but would understand if he did want to.
“I still got the shit end of it and got turned around and had to come from the back and and stuff like that,” Blaney said. “You remember it, just stuff like that. It’s not anything grudge-y or something like that. It’s just those racing situations that you kind of think about. Next time you run with that person, you probably run them a little bit tighter and don’t give them as much space.”
Still, this probably won’t end up being a feud that goes on throughout the playoffs, as that wouldn’t benefit either driver. Larson just wants to get back to his winning ways, to which he said Sunday was a step in the right direction. Blaney, on the other hand, just wants to have a race where he doesn’t get spun out.
“I’ve gotten spun twice in two races in the playoffs, so sick of getting turned around,” Blaney said.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.