(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Kyle Larson was caught up in a crash on lap 71 of the Geico 500 ending his day early. Much of the talk during the race was centered around how unstable the cars are with the new aero package, a point that Larson eluded to in his post-crash interview.
“Oh, I think everybody’s cars were really on the edge so I think that’s why so far we’ve seen a lot of single-file racing. It’s just because it’s tougher, I think, for anybody to be aggressive because they’re out of control in a single-file line, at least I am. It looks like other people are”, said Larson.
Larson points out the instability of the cars is what led to less pack racing which is what many drivers complain about when coming to the restrictor plate tracks due to the significant higher risk of big crashes. “Yeah, I think the cars are a handful to drive and I think that is why we have seen a lot of single file racing just because everybody’s confidence in their cars isn’t as high as it has been in the past. Less big moves and stuff, so I think it kind of gets single file because of that.”
Larson was planning to get more aggressive in Stage 2, but never got the opportunity. “Yeah, I don’t know. I was ready to get to go do some racing. That whole first stage was a little uneventful you know, just single-file. I think we had a group of like six cars, so I was ready to hopefully get to race aggressively in the second stage. But, I’m not really sure what happened in the wreck. I saw Jamie (McMurray) get loose and then I saw the No. 20 (Erik Jones) get into the wall and then I had nowhere to go and got into Jamie. I hate that we tore up a Credit One Bank Chevy. Like I said, I was just kind of ready to go racing and didn’t really get to today.”
Larson ended the day in 40th place.
