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Kyle Larson Shuts Down Race Manipulation Conspiracy Theories With Bubba Wallace at Darlington

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kyle Dalton | Last updated Apr 12, 2025 5:31 PM ET

Kyle Larson had a day at Darlington Raceway last Sunday he couldn’t forget fast enough.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion started the day on a bad note when he crashed by himself on Lap 4. After sitting in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the garage for almost two hours while his team made repairs, he returned to the track.

Unbelievably, the day ended eerily similar to as bad as it started when he was involved in, ironically enough, another crash with four laps remaining the race. Except in this incident, Bubba Wallace got into the rear of the HMS car and sent it for a slide.

After it happened, many fans took to social media and suggested a case of race manipulation with the 23XI Racing driver trying to help his teammate, Tyler Reddick, who had just been passed by Ryan Blaney for the lead just seconds before the caution came out.

On Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Larson met with reporters and addressed the incident, ultimately taking responsibility for it.

Kyle Larson explains what happened at the end of last Sunday's race that brought out the final caution when he was spun by Bubba Wallace. Plus, the (funny) reason he stayed in the car during the near two-hour repairs: pic.twitter.com/LM8VSqTFel
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) April 12, 2025

“Yeah, from my perspective, the 12 and 45 got racing in (Turn) 1,” Larson said. “And the 45, I saw him get out of the groove and he was getting ready to hit the wall and I’m so many laps down.

“I was hopeful that Bubba was still on my right side because I started checking up early. And yeah, the contact was there. Honestly, me just trying to be so out of the way there that I screwed up. I hate to affect the finish. It kind of is what it is at this point and just try to learn from it if I’m ever in that same position.”

Larson and Wallace return to racing action on Sunday at Bristol. Race coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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