At the indianapolis motor speedway, nascar has given their take on the controversial restart, including kyle larson’s #5 chevy and ryan blaney’s #12 ford. Officials believe the hendrick motorsports driver’s first brickyard 400 victory was safe, but that he didn’t jumpstart the second-to-last restart. Larson found himself in the front row just before the first overtime start on lap 162, with no laps remaining until the final 167-lap dash, owing to brad keselowski’s fuel exhaustion, which allowed him to sit alongside blaney. The #12 driver was supposed to accelerate first because it was now the control vehicle, but it was not so. Kyle larson accelerated a moment before blaney did and entered turn 1 as the leader, dominating the pack and sparking controversy before the multi-car pileup brought him level with team penske’s driver again for the final restart. The #5 chevy didn’t give up on the defending champion and gunned to the start/finish line for his third crown jewel race victory after the coca-cola 600 in 2021 and the southern 500 last year
Bob pockrass took to x to discuss nascar’s take on the controversial restart. “in a situation where keselowski, the driver, runs out of gas on restart, blaney was the control vehicle, since he was the first car in the other lane on the front row, not larson. Larson didn’t jump the start, according to nascar’s statement.
“I couldn’t believe they stayed out”- Ryan Blaney becomes vocal on his third-place finish as the unexpected green flag favored Kyle Larson
Though ryan blaney made it to the top of the standings this season, he was on the verge of achieving his second straight victory, keselowski’s fuel shortages turned the situation around. The rfk racing driver was supposed to take the green flag as the leader, but it didn’t happen, and the field was kept calm, giving kyle larson the front row seat which caught blaney off guard. In addition, the final caution for ryan preece to fail in turn 2 was triggered not when the spin-off occurred but when the stewart-haas racing driver’s car stalled on the pavement. Kyle larson stole the show with his triumphant run, which became another reason for blaney’s displeasure. “it’s no fun, i had a really good chance to win today.” Our car was quick. We thought we had a really smart idea. The front man was forced to save a little bit of fuel. I thought we’d been in a great place. “i know the 6 keselowski was probably going to run out if it went green,” he said.
“i couldn’t believe they stayed out until the restart.” I knew there was no way they were going to make it. I obviously chose the top because i knew he would run out in the restart zone. “he runs out of green when he gets to do to pit road and the 5 is promoted,” the dissatisfied third-placed driver at ims said.