Larson: Talladega wreck ‘unsettling ’
DOVER, Del. — Kyle Larson has survived neardeath experiences on the track in all kinds of racing series.
Even by those harrowing standards, the 2021 NASCAR champion still found the aftermath of the full-contact hit from Ryan Preece last week at Talladega “unsettling.”
It twisted and busted the support bars in Larson’s Chevrolet roll cage. Kyle Busch compared the wreckage to a “brick getting rammed into a stick of butter.” Larson walked away. So did Preece. Both drivers are in good health and ready to race again Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway.
Larson, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports, was thankful the wreck wasn’t worse. The Next Gen car is entering its second NASCAR season, and the organization is still making needed changes to improve safety in an inherently dangerous sport.
“You see things that could have easily gotten me in the car, whether it be the bars that had completely broke off and could have shanked me,” Larson said Saturday. “Or what if I had a second impact? I’m not knocking NASCAR at all on that. They’ve worked really hard with
this car to make it safer. I’ve been very thankful they took both my car and Preece’s car afterward to dive in deeper into it and see how they can make it safer yet.”
NASCAR’s ongoing investigation includes a re-creation of the crash through computer-aided designs and reviewing film from the in-car camera.
“It’s pretty clear that changes have to be made,” reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano said. “I don’t know how you fix it.”
Logano and Busch were among several drivers who wondered whether the accident could have potentially been fatal had Larson been hit on the driver’s side door.
NASCAR said Saturday the driver’s side construction
is “multiple times stronger than the right.”
“There’s no other form of racing, in my opinion, that takes safety more seriously than them,” Larson said of NASCAR. “But that doesn’t mean the sport is safe.”
At Talladega, Ross Chastain shoved his car into the middle for a third lane and his car bounced off Noah Gragson, who hit the wall to trigger the crash. Larson was knocked into the grass and his car shot back into the middle of traffic and was smacked by Preece. Preece’s helmet visor was knocked open with the hit.
Xfinity: Ryan Truex won for the first time in 188 career NASCAR starts across all three national series in the Xfinity Series race
Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. The 31-year-old younger brother of former NASCAR champion Martin Truex Jr. dominated on the concrete-mile track and swept all three stages, leading 124 of the 200 laps. Truex is winless in 26 Cup starts (none since 2014), is 0-for-73 in the Truck Series and hadn’t won in 88 previous races in the second-tier Xfinity Series. He did have a second and a third among his four previous starts this season in the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Formula One:
Sergio Pérez won the Formula One sprint race in Azerbaijan on Saturday to extend Red Bull’s winning start to the season, as his teammate Max Verstappen settled for third in a damaged car behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Leclerc started on the pole — as he will for the main Azerbaijan Grand Prix race on Sunday — but was overtaken by Pérez just before the halfway point.