Kyle Larson offered his opinion on whether Ryan Blaney should have changed lanes after Brad Keselwoski went to pit road and became the automatic leader. While the Hendrick Motorsports driver said he “doesn’t know the right answer,” he explained that he dislikes overtime restarts, especially at a 4.5-mile oval like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He fell behind the leaders in the second stage and plummeted to 20th, but Larson caught up in the final stage while many of his rivals pursued fuel-saving strategies. However, the 2021 Cup Series champion took his first win at the Brickyard 400 on the first overtime restart on lap 162. Keselowski was supposed to take the green flag as the leader, but he ran out of gas and pitted, leaving Blaney’s team. The Ford No. 12 was the controlled vehicle. Meanwhile, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet moved up from third to second place alongside the defending Cup Series champion.
Larson took advantage of the opportunity to grab the inside line and take the lead into Turn 1. This led to speculation that the Team Penske driver should have been allowed to change lanes before the restart, since the leader had changed. According to NASCAR rules, drivers must check the track’s position between the inside and outside lanes continuously, and then choose where to continue the failure. However, the rules are unclear regarding Blaney’s scenario, in which the leader does not use the green line and the second-place car becomes the front-runner. Larson said he wishes he’d had the lane reselection option if he were Blaney, but doesn’t favor it due to the unclear nature of NASCAR’s rules: “I don’t know the right answer. Maybe if I was him I would, but not the way the rules are written right now. I would have had to immediately abort the restart, get on the next one, get dialed in again, and it would have taken a few more laps under caution. It’s kind of tedious, especially on a 4.5-mile course over time…it’s tough.” I don’t know the exact answer,” Larson said on X (formerly Twitter), via Steven Stumpf.
“Just kind of worked out”- Kyle Larson on how he resurrected his form to come home with his maiden Indianapolis Motor Speedway win
Kyle Larson started his 21st race weekend in fifth place, but improvised to take the wheel of the No. 5 Chevrolet and take second place in Stage 1. However, a problem arose in the second stage that caused Larson’s pace to drop significantly and he had to settle for 20th place.
His drop in pace and the resulting reversal in the final 60-lap stage seemed to have dimmed any chance of a promising finish, let alone a race win. However, things turned around for the Californian as the HMS driver’s previous competitors pursued a fuel-saving strategy.
With more fuel on board than the other Camaros and therefore plenty of speed, Larson did his best to establish an advantage and led the field outright after the first restart of the overtime period. Immediately after his 27th Cup Series victory, the HMS driver revealed how the win went: “I had more gas than the guys in front of me, and they all worked hard to get to the end, or whatever effort they had, so it worked out well. Their pace was a little off, and we all stayed together, and I got a lift early, and I was able to charge into the ground late (in a dive) and surprise them,” Larson said via NASCAR. Larson leads the playoff standings and the regular season standings, and if he can maintain his lead over the next four races, he could win his second regular season title after 2021.
