Kyle Larson was unable to finish Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race following a crash right at the entrance of pit road at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The 31-year-old driver was battling with Ryan Blaney for the race lead in Lap 213 of the 4EVER 400 presented by Mobil 1. Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was just behind Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang as both cars made a move to pit.
Larson misjudged the space between the two cars as Blaney began to slow down and his Chevrolet made contact with the right rear of Blaney’s Ford before slamming into the sand barrels separating the pit road from the track.
Larson tried to continue racing after getting some repairs, but a broken tire rod forced him to retire after just a few more laps.
Larson took accountability for the crash following his exit from the race.
“To me, it just seemed like [Blaney] got to pit road speed a lot sooner than I thought. … I was hoping to just time it to be right to his back bumper. I just misjudged that. I should have just been able to be a little bit more cautious. To have some room for error. Upset at myself for that,” said Larson.
Larson also hoped that Blaney would be able to “salvage a good finish” despite the incident. Blaney finished second behind Christopher Bell. Larson ended up 34th out of 36 cars.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has already secured his spot in the NASCAR Championship Four for the season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks. Larson was the first driver to do so after winning the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last week.
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