Kyle Larson's Team Radio Answers Questions About Bubba Wallace and Race Manipulation

It happened after Ryan Blaney had just passed Tyler Reddick for the lead coming out of Turn 2. The Fox cameras showed the incident as the Penske car passed the No. 45 car, the No. 5 car went for a spin off the bumper of the No. 23 car of Bubba Wallace in the background.

Moments after his car hit the inside wall and came to a stop, Larson radioed to his team.

“I was checking up, so that's embarrassing,” he admitted, accepting responsibility for the incident and ending any suggestions of race manipulation by the 23XI Racing driver.

The 32-year-old driver didn’t talk to reporters after the race but his crew chief Cliff Daniels further clarified the situation.

“We didn’t catch Kyle Larson before he left, but Cliff Daniels said Kyle told him he felt bad about being part of the last caution,” the Athletic's Jeff Gluck wrote on X. “They were trying to stay out of the way of the leaders and stay low, and Larson checked up early to make sure he didn’t get into Reddick, but Bubba didn’t know Larson was going to slow down that much.”

Slow down that much, bring out a caution and close out a day that ended just as bad as it started.