Clearly, the state of Kyle Larson’s car after his scary wreck in Talladega had alarm bells ringing inside the NASCAR community. After all, last year, when the complaints from drivers about small hits feeling huge eventually came to a very serious point when veteran driver Kurt Busch was forced to retire because of a concussion he endured in what seemed like a harmless wreck, everyone knew the Next Gen car had a safety problem.

And after Larson’s wreck, that discussion has resurfaced as Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch both shared their takes on the same.

Kyle Busch has an interesting analogy on the Larson–Preece wreck

Ahead of the Cup race in Dover, Kyle Busch, who won in Talladega, claimed even though he is “no scientist,” he can understand the concern of the situation looking at the damage on the #5 Chevy of Kyle Larson.

“You can only wonder, what if it was the left side? Right? So that is a huge issue, but the bigger matter is what created the damage, you know?

“That is, the other car didn’t sustain much damage,” he described. “Looking at the #41 and seeing some of the stuff on that car, it was a brick getting rammed into a stick of butter.

“It’s just going to smash it if it’s built too stiff.”

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Chase Elliott admits the state of the car of Kyle Larson is “certainly a bit concerning”

This was also a concern that Larson‘s teammate Chase Elliott echoed in a recent interview. The #9 driver claimed that even though he hasn’t seen his teammate’s racecar in person, from the pictures that he has seen,  it is “certainly a bit concerning on a multitude of levels.” 

“I’m disappointed in that personally,” Elliott said. “Last year it was like, the softer hits were a problem but that’s in preparation for a bigger hit being covered. From data I heard was he was doing only a 130 [mph], so what happens if he’s doing a 180 [mph] or 160 [mph].”

NASCAR’s most popular driver emphasized that while the situation is worrying, everyone should focus on moving forward and resolving the issues.

“I definitely think that’s concerning but probably more of a conversation on how to move forward outside of this room and we’ll get it better where we can be productive on it and not just sit here and run my mouth,” Elliott added.

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