There\u2019s an old saying in NASCAR oftentimes when there is a crash between two drivers that could very easily have been avoided, except one driver \u201cran out of talent\u201d. Such was the case in last year\u2019s Cup race at World Wide Technology Raceway aka Gateway, outside of St. Louis.<\/p>\n
NASCAR Cup\u2019s two Kyles, Larson and Busch, were battling each other for seventh place with 10 laps left in Stage 2 on the 1.6-mile oval, when they got together on Lap 140. Busch got the worst part of the deal, as his race immediately ended due to damage, finishing 35th in the 36-car field.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Larson backed his No. 5 Team Hendrick Chevrolet into the wall, sustaining minor damage and was able to recover, bouncing back for a strong 10th-place finish.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Larson said after last year\u2019s incident, via Sportsnaut.com<\/a><\/strong>: \u201cI always do a really good job at looking back at accidents that I get in and whether it be that I caused it or I didn\u2019t cause it. I still try to pinpoint what kind of fault I had in it.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I look at that one, if I didn\u2019t barely touch his quarter panel to get to a side draft he wouldn\u2019t have gotten upset and started running into me down the straightaway and then crowd me into [Turn] 1.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t going into 1 to race him and have a dick-measuring contest. I was just trying to make it into the corner. So yeah if I didn\u2019t touch his quarter we would have raced just fine through 1. <\/p>\n \u201cI look at it as probably more my fault there but into one I know I\u2019m the guy that spun but I don\u2019t feel that part was at all my fault. It\u2019s just racing and he got frustrated and I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s not too frustrated with me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Recently, Busch was asked if he recalled the incident and what he remembers from it.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what I recall, Kyle (Larson) caught me from a ways back and it\u2019s hard to pass with these cars, obviously,\u201d Busch said<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cSo I guess he felt it when he got to me, he needed to nerf me a little bit and get me up out of the groove.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess I just wasn\u2019t too happy with that and crowded him a little bit getting into Turn 1, he lost his race car and we both ended up crashed. I guess that\u2019s part of the course.\u201d<\/p>\n Harvick blames Busch for the incident with Larson<\/p>\n Kevin Harvick talked about last year\u2019s incident at length on an edition of his Happy Hour podcast a few days later.<\/p>\n \u201cI viewed that as a little bit of frustration from Kyle Busch with Kyle Larson and pretty quickly,\u201d Harvick said<\/a><\/strong> of the initial contact between the two Kyles coming down the frontstretch. \u201cIt didn\u2019t look like a lot of contact to me.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that pressure is ramping up on Kyle Busch. I\u2019ve been there. Those scenarios where he hasn\u2019t won in a year, 19 years in a row, and now he\u2019s looking to extend that win streak. He\u2019s had a lot of terrible things have happened with the pit crew. The pit crew hasn\u2019t done a great job at all.<\/p>\n \u201cKyle\u2019s had a few of these moments with a few guys on the racetrack, so his fuse is short, but it\u2019s short for a reason, and that\u2019s because the cars aren\u2019t running good and they\u2019re not getting the finishes. There\u2019s not many people that are as good as Kyle Busch at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n