Hendrick Motorsports landed its defending champion driver in Victory Lane after Sunday's Wise Power 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway, but it didn't escape the 2-mile track from Fontana, Calif., without incident.
With 20 laps to go and a three-way battle for the lead with Joey Logano in between, eventual race winner Kyle Larson released a block on teammate Chase Elliott, squeezing the 2020 winner into the wall.
"What's he doing, man? It wasn't even close," Elliot said over his in-car communication. "... it's probably going to break again before the end of the race. But I don't really give in to the (disabled) frontrunner.
Elliott quickly faded through the pack as a result of the loss, and his suspicions were correct – he rolled in just a few laps later, prompting the last of the race's 12 caution flags. The cumulative damage between this brush with the wall and an earlier incident were too much to overcome, and Elliott landed 26th on the final results sheet, two laps down.
The Dawsonville, Georgia, native was leading in Stage 1, when he lost control of his Chevrolet and slammed the outside wall, the latter bringing up the second caution of the race with a spin on lap 38. A furious, race-long effort by his No. 1 9 Group pushed his run further through the field, only to end it like this on certainty adding to the frustration.
Larson claimed on his in-car radio that he did not see his partner coming out. The Elk Grove, Calif., native went on, then survived the final restart with four laps remaining for his first Cup Series win of the season. His post-race winner's press conference allowed him to elaborate on what he was seeing at the time.
"So, I didn't get (turns) 3 and 4 very well. Joey (Logano) did a good job on the bottom, and then we were drafting each other, and I was on my own at that point. Wasn't even looking in the mirror because I'm only worried about Joey and I'm looking out my A-Post window. I had a run, so I went peeling, and as I peel, my spotter is screaming, 'Out! Out! Out!' And I didn't know that was even coming," said Larsson, who returned to victory lane in the quick order after last season's 10 wins. “I hate that I ended his day when he tried so hard to come back on the lead lap and get back in contention to win, but it was probably an honest mistake on both of our faults. Me in my mirror and Should have kept the awareness. My spotter could have told me he was coming off a big run, and we would have avoided that mess. I probably wasn't side drafting on Joy as hard as I was. I worry about Joey Would have done more security on the chase than did it.
"It happened, and I hate it. I know they're upset. But we'll talk, and hopefully, we'll get on the same page. I would never run with my teammate or push him aggressively and on." I'll stop on purpose late."
Larson's spotter, Tyler Mon, was quick to chime in on Twitter after the race, taking responsibility for the accident.
Today I made a mistake. I will take full responsibility for what happen on track today. I was worried more about the 22 and not the 9. It was a late call on me it had nothing to do with Kyle.
— Tyler Monn (@TylerMonn) February 28, 2022
This minor dust-up shouldn't overwhelm Larsen's victory, a statement that he's still going to be equally formidable in the next generation era two races. But Hendrick Motorsports has something wide to do in the coming days between its pair of star drivers and the sport's two most recent champions. The last thing the team needs before the calendar, even in March, is bad blood among any of its drivers, let alone half of last year's Championship 4.
No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels had a post-race chat with No. 9 pit boss Alan Gustafson to "take his share of the responsibility", mentioning that he considers Elliot's group to be "great teammates." , always have been" and will remain the basis.
However, the completion of the fence-modification process would require negotiation between the two drivers.
"I think that would need to start from our point of view, first between Kyle and Chase," said Hendricks general manager Jeff Andrews. "Hopefully they can go to a good place and kind of step back and look at the data and really see what happened there. And then of course, as a group, Jeff Gordon, Chad (Naus) and I and Mr. (Rick) Hendricks, of course, we want to talk to him. We want to go to a nice place in Las Vegas.
“Certainly, very proud of both of those teams. They both had great race cars. This is good news, isn't it? This other stuff that happens on the race track, we can all get that in a good spot between those two teams, and give Cliff credit for standing up to talk to (Gustafsson) a while back, and he That said, after what happened, their mission is to do everything they can to help Chase and team 9 as well as our other teams win and make it to the playoffs.
Elliott did not appear to make any public comment after the race, quite upset after a day in which he had a car capable of winning and went on with a total of 11 points.