23XI Racing continued their fabulous run at Kansas Speedway with Tyler Reddick registering an emphatic victory. Even Hendrick Motorsports enjoyed a good spell on Sunday with three of their four drivers finishing in the top ten. However, the incident between Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson on pit road would have left some concerns for the future.

Safe to say, the race in Kansas has all the drama a NASCAR Cup Series race could provide. While Larson enjoyed a fourth-placed finish on Sunday, he would have wished to avoid the scuffle that took place with Elliott.

Chase Elliott has his say on the Kyle Larson feud at Kansas

Going into the second race of the Round of 16, a lot was at stake for the playoff drivers. With one of the in-form drivers Martin Truex Jr getting retired during the opening laps of the race, there was plenty of scope for others to play catch up. While Tyler Reddick capitalized the most, Kyle Larson wasn’t that behind either.

After winning the race in Darlington, Larson came to the race with immense confidence. He went on to win Stage 1 and ended the race with 99 laps to his name. However, despite his fourth finish, the talk revolved around a pit road incident involving him and his teammate Chase Elliott.

For the first time in his Cup Series career, Elliott has missed the playoffs. While that has been painful enough, the #9 driver was left fuming near the end of the race. As multiple cars exited the pit, Larson unintentionally bumped into Elliott’s car as he tried avoiding Brad Keselowski’s car.

This didn’t go down well with the Georgia-born driver. Elliott retaliated with a bump just moments later in what looked like an angered reaction. In fact, just after taking the checkered flag, he rushed toward Larson’s car as the duo had a quick chat about the incident.

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Out of nothing, it turned into a heated affair between two of Hendrick Motorsports’ best drivers. Naturally, that would have been concerning for Rick Hendrick. However, he would have been left confused after what Elliott had to say about the event.

When asked by Bob Pockrass from Fox Sports if he was trying to send a message, the 2020 Cup Series champion had a four-word response. He said, “There was no message.“ On the other hand, Larson had quite a bit to say about what happened.

Kyle Larson gets candid about the pit road incident involving teammate Chase Elliott

In all fairness, it looked like Kyle Larson had from little to no choice left with himself. In fact, he gave a clear idea about the situation after the race. Larson said, “From my vantage point, I knew we were three-wide while we were leaving.

“And I knew — well, I didn’t know — but the [No.] 6 is pitted in front of us, and I just trying to leave as much space as I can. He’s coming out of the lane, because the 6 is trying to slow us down. I tried to leave as much space as I could. Obviously, I made contact with [Elliott], but I felt like if I didn’t, I was going to clobber the 6 right in the right front. I thought the safest bet for all of us was for me to squeeze out a little bit.”

While Larson understood Chase Elliott’s perspective, he hoped that Elliott would understand why he did what he did. The #5 driver said, “I understand why he’s mad, or was mad in the moment. I hope when he sees the replay, he understands I didn’t have the space, or not much. It was just inches.” 

It is interesting to see how the HMS drivers go about in the future with this incident in mind. Do you think Larson was right with the choice he made? Let us know in the comments below.

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