What's next for Hendrick teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott?
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
FONTANA, Calif. — Kyle Larson and Hendrick Motorsports celebrated their first win of 2022 as Larson hoisted the trophy Sunday following the season’s second race.
There also is more work to be done, and not everyone in the Hendrick shop will be in a good mood.
FINAL LAPS: Kyle Larson holds off Austin Dillon at Fontana
If the Ryan Blaney-Austin Cindric dynamic was a speed bump at Team Penske, the Larson-Chase Elliott dynamic could become more of a pothole at Hendrick Motorsports.
Elliott, who came back from two laps down after damage from early contact with the wall, attempted to pass Larson and Joey Logano for the lead with 20 laps remaining.
Larson appeared to attempt to throw a block, pinching Elliott into the wall. Elliott responded with a NSFW rant about Larson on his radio.
Elliott then spun on Lap 192 to bring out the caution, bunching up the field and potentially costing Larson the win, though he held on for the victory.
As far as the initial contact, Larson said it wasn’t a block.
"I didn't get through [Turns] 3 and 4 very well," he said. "Joey did a good job on the bottom, and then we were side drafting each other, and I'm not even looking in my mirror at that point because all I'm worried about is Joey, and I'm looking out of my A-post window.
"I had a run, so I went to peel off, and as soon as I peeled off, my spotter is yelling, ‘Outside! Outside! Outside!’ And I had no clue he was even coming."
Larson’s spotter tweeted to take the blame afterward, saying he was more worried about Logano and made a late call on Elliott.
"I hate that I ended his day after they worked so hard to get back to the lead lap and back in contention to win, but it was just an honest mistake on probably both of our faults," Larson said. "I should have had more awareness in my mirror. My spotter could have told me he was coming with a big run, and we would have avoided that mess.
"I would have probably not been side drafting on Joey as hard as I was. I would have been more so protecting on Chase than worrying about Joey."
Considering Elliott’s anger on the in-car radio, the spin that might've cost Larson the win could have been construed as something done on purpose out of frustration.
But Elliott said he didn’t spin on purpose, noting that he broke the same piece he did earlier in the race. That’s a valid and logical explanation, as the piece that broke (the toe link) appears to be among the most fragile in NASCAR’s new Next Gen car, and Elliott's wasn’t the only team that had to replace them during the race.
How will Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson move on from Fontana?
As far as the contact with Larson, Elliott didn’t have much to say afterward.
"The results are what they are," he said.
So where does Hendrick Motorsports go from here?
"I know they're upset," Larson said. "But we'll talk, and hopefully we'll get on the same page. I would never run into my teammate or block him that aggressively and that late on purpose."
The onus will be on Hendrick Motorsports management to make sure any animosity doesn’t fester.
"Nothing intentional there by Kyle, and ... we'll go back and talk about it in our meetings tomorrow and Tuesday, and we'll look at all the facts, and we'll look at what happened, and we'll talk about it as a company," Hendrick Motorsports general manager Jeff Andrews said Sunday night.
"And at the end of the day, we're going to — as we always do — we'll do the right things for the company and get ready to go to Las Vegas in a good spot."
Jeff Andrews on the Kyle Larson-Chase Elliott dynamic after Fontana
Larson crew chief Cliff Daniels shook his head and said "no, no, no" at the mention that Elliott’s spin could have been out of frustration, and Andrews dismissed that notion. Drivers can be fined and penalized points if they spin on purpose, but it is not unprecedented for drivers to do so out of frustration.
"He came on [the radio about it] pretty quickly after the contact with the wall, and it was a very similar issue that had happened to them early in the day with the bent toe link, and that puts a bunch of toe out in that right rear tire and rear assembly, and that makes it very difficult to drive," Andrews said.
"They were trying to stay out and finish as well as they could and had the issue late in the race there, had to come in and put a toe link on it."
Larson, for his part, can’t do much about it now. It happened. He’ll have to live with the consequences, and he knows that what happens in the future will depend on, well, what happens in the future.
"I’m going to tell him exactly how I told you guys, and he'll take it for what it is," Larson said. "Either way, I'm sure he'll still be upset, even if we're on the same page or not. It's just a conversation that we'll have, and we're both young, we both respect each other a lot, so we'll both be racing for wins for many years to come."
Kyle Larson explains what happened with teammate Chase Elliott at Fontana
The Larson-Elliott relationship has gotten stronger over the past year, as Elliott has dabbled in more dirt racing, and Elliott has been at some of Larson's events as a competitor who willingly gives advice. They also share the same agent.
"I'm not too worried about it. I think if anything, it's probably a small bump in the road," Larson said. "I think if things happen more so in the future, then yes, it gets out of hand.
"But Hendrick Motorsports, I don't think, will ever let it get to that point, and like I said, we have enough respect for each other that I don't think it will get out of hand at all."
The conversations won’t be easy. Or at least, they shouldn’t be, considering how much is on the line every weekend.
"We'll just have a conversation, and I'm sure it'll be fine," Larson said. "Like I said, he's going to be upset, which he has a right to be, but I'll explain my side just like I explained it to you guys, and he'll believe me, or he won't."
Thinking out loud
NASCAR is going to have to figure out the issue of cars being stalled, unable to drive away from accidents and spins, because they have flat tires.
The solution for the race Sunday was for drivers to stay in their cars (if they got out, their race was over) and get towed back to pit road. Drivers lost several laps under that procedure, where in the past, they might lose one.
The issue is that the tires don’t have inner liners. The cars have a similar circumference as last year, but the wheels are 18-inch wheels instead of 15-inch, which means there is less area to put an inner liner, and the wheels aren’t designed for them. Combined with the cars sitting so low, the Next Gen car is much more difficult to drive with a flat.
This isn’t a huge surprise. NASCAR saw teams having difficulty in this area at tests the past few months. It isn’t an easy fix, but hopefully, NASCAR can come up with a better solution than what happened at Fontana.
Social spotlight
Stat of the day
Kyle Larson’s win at Fontana marked the first time he had ever won a race in which he had to drop to the rear for the start.
They said it
"Joey Logano got to the front quicker than I did, and he grew up in Connecticut. I don't think they have any dirt up there. I don't think it matters." — Kyle Larson on whether his dirt experience helped him at Fontana
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
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