One Month After Pocono, Kyle Larson’s Consistent Inability To Mirror Denny Hamlin Costs Him the Victory Lane

After a dominant run along the last 55 laps at Darlington Speedway, Kyle Larson snatched the victory to earn his direct pass to the next round of playoffs. And that does not change even if Larson fails to put up a good show at Bristol. However, a win does not hurt. And with the last overtime restart at Kansas Speedway, Kyle Larson perhaps could have made the same move that Denny Hamlin had made on him back in Pocono and taken the latter down. This might have even blocked Tyler Reddick’s window of opportunity to seize the victory and maybe, just maybe could you have gotten Larson his second playoff race victory.

After his 7th win at the Tricky Triangle, Denny Hamlin faced a lot of criticism, none of which seemed to have mattered to the 23XI Racing owner. After all, when 40 cars run at full throttle, trying to get that single cherished ride down the victory lane, instances of hard racing like these are bound to happen. After the second race of the round of 16s, a NASCAR insider revealed how he had wanted the #5 driver to replicate the move made on him a month ago.

Steve Letarte expected to see Kyle Larson race Denny Hamlin differently

The overtime restart was probably the most talked about segment of the 268-lap long race on Sunday. It is where Tyler Reddick led two laps; the last two and the most important two laps. Denny Hamlin had admitted earlier to having failed to leverage the restart as Larson laid back on the restart line, which apparently had distracted him. However, there was a point in the race when Larson and Hamlin were door-to-door with each other.

Just around turn 1, three rows of two cars each, ran in winning contention. First, Logano-Jones, Second, Reddick-Busch, and third, Larson-Hamlin. It is exactly then that Steve Letarte thought the Hendrick Motorsports icon should have nudged Denny Hamlin and taken the outside groove to take the lead past Kyle Busch. He said, “When the 5 got to the start-finish line made an aggressive move up Denny, mirror driving him, blocked him.”

Letarte spilled, “You wanna see that same move right here. Right here, the 5, and the 11. I wanna see the 5 come down and block that run. And take that push to get to the 45.”

According to the former HMS star, Tyler Reddick was very happy to get his right clear. He then attempted to veer to the outside of the front row and clear the then-leader. And that is exactly what he did. After that, there was no looking back for the #45 speedster.

Hall of Famer had admitted how Kyle Larson should have raced Denny Hamlin after the controversial Pocono race

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In a top-tier NASCAR series like the Cup Series, the chances of contact are plenty. NASCAR does not promote dirty driving, but in this elite sport, hard racing is inevitable. And Dale Jarrett admitted having faced the same from his contemporary Rusty Wallace.

Jarrett explained that if Kyle Larson wanted the respect that he demanded, he had to race Denny Hamlin or any other driver hard. He must take a stand for himself. This is not something new in the arena of NASCAR, as even the legendary Dale Earnhardt was infamous for his racing antics.

Dale Jarrett explained, “At some point in time, you just have to say it’s not necessarily a payback, it’s just that, hey, we’re racing on a different level now. You showed me how you’re gonna race me every single time we’re having these battles at the front.”

“Now, I’m basically putting my foot down and saying, this is what you can expect back from me,” he added.

Read more: Chase Elliott Drops a 4-Word Confession on Kyle Larson Feud

However, we can all agree with Dale Jarrett when he predicted the nature of this year’s playoffs, saying, “It is certainly setting us up for the playoffs to be probably more exciting that we might have anticipated this year being.”

Watch this story: Kyle Larson’s Near Escape After Impact With Tony Stewart’s Driver Trigger Major Next Gen Change From NASCAR