Kyle Larson reacts to hard racing, contact with Shane van Gisbergen at the Roval

During the NASCAR Playoffs race at the Roval, Kyle Larson gave Shane van Gisbergen some old-fashioned stock car racing. The two drivers were very physical with each other as they raced for the lead in the final stage. SVG won out, but it was a good message or the Cup Series newcomer.

Kyle Larson has never been afraid to get physical on the racetrack. He’s raced hard against so many drivers, on both ends of the equation.

Today, SVG tried to send it deep into the hairpin at Turn 7. Wrong move. He got to the inside of Larson and started to push him up the track on the oval. That’s when Larson simply turned left.

“Yeah, no I mean, I was just watching him come at me super fast in my mirror, and then he was, I don’t know, three car lengths back into [Turn] 7, I was like, alright, probably going to wait here and get me on the frontstretch or somewhere else, you know?” Larson said, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “And then he bombed it in on 7 and drove right into the side of me.

“I was like, alright, well, I’m going to hit you a couple of times here now. Yeah, it kind of brought Bell back in the mix a bit, and then yeah, once he got back to second, I was like, alright, I’m done being crazy here because I feel like that point we were even, and I didn’t want to get where he owed me again.”

Kyle Larson comes up short battling SVG at the Roval

P2 for Kyle Larson at the Roval. A really good showing. His tire strategy wasn’t enough to make a run at Shane van Gisbergen late. Then again, no one has really made a good challenge to him since COTA in the beginning of the season.

It was a good day for Larson and the 5 team. They should be running up front like this at every track. That just hasn’t been the case lately. Today, it looked like Larson was the only driver with something in the early run that could challenge SVG. But it was all the 88 in the long runs. His tire management was unreal.

Going to Las Vegas, Kyle Larson could use it as a shortcut to Phoenix. Winning Vegas would be a huge boost to Larson’s championship hopes. I bet he’d be willing to put the door to somebody to win next week, too.