Hendrick Motorsports might be one of the most dominant teams in the history of NASCAR, but there seems to be some dissension in their ranks. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott had a moment on pit road during the last pit stop. The two made contact after coming out of their pit stalls and the driver of the #9 was not happy. He made his thoughts clear when he intentionally tagged Kyle Larson on the way out to the track.
This move drew a lot of backlash for one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers and so did Elliott’s reaction after the race. Chase and Larson were seen having a conversation after the race. When NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass asked the #9 driver what the message was that he sent to his teammate, Elliott simply said that there was no message.
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It could be interpreted in a number of ways but one thing was there for everyone to see and that was the dissatisfaction in Elliott’s voice. No matter what the #9 driver says about the incident, there is no denying that he was genuinely quite upset with his teammate, who actually did nothing wrong.
Former race car driver Jamie McMurray was quick to pick up on this as he was dissecting the tensions in the HMS garage after the Kansas pit road incident and he accused Elliott of lying while answering Bob Pockrass’ question.
On NASCAR Race Hub, McMurray said, “Did you see every time Bob asked Chase a question his nose was getting longer?”
“He was lying right there, he was not telling the truth. He was clearly mad at Kyle Larson… But I’m with Larson. I think when Chase goes back and sees the video, he’s gonna realize that Brad [Keselowski] was exiting and Kyle had nowhere to go and it was the last pitstop.” However, there are other reasons why it is difficult to be Larson’s teammate, as told by the former driver.
Over the last few years, Kyle Larson has been one of the best drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 2021 champion is fast, aggressive, and has impeccable race craft, which makes him one of the toughest drivers to race against. In light of this McMurray, added, “Kyle Larson is hard to be teammates with. Not because he is not a good teammate or not a nice guy, but he wins a lot and he’s fast. And that’s hard to be teammates with,” he added.
While Chase was angry at Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion remained calm throughout the entire fiasco that followed, stating that he had nowhere to go on pit road but understood why Elliott would be mad at him.
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According to the driver of #5, Brad Keselowski was the one at fault for causing the collision. The RFK Racing driver had come out of his pit stall in front of the #5. Larson had to push on the brakes to prevent a collision with Keselowski and he could not get out of Elliott’s way, who was right there beside him.
“I left my pit stall and was inside of Chase and you know the #6 car, he was pitted up in front of us, he was coming out of his stall and I’m just trying to leave everybody as much room as possible or that I can.
“The 6 is going much slower as we’re approaching him so I was gonna clobber him if I didn’t move up a little bit so, yeah we made slight contact and all that,” the Darlington race winner said.
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It is safe to say that whatever Larson’s reason may be, it left a sour taste in Elliott’s mouth and he made sure that he let his teammate know about it on track. Whether there will be repercussions in the HMS shop, it’s hard to say at this point in time.