Kyle Larson Urges NASCAR to Fix “Scary” Gateway Pit-Road

The NASCAR Cup Series race last week at Gateway was the most chaotic events the sport has seen in the 2026 season. It featured a season record 18 cautions and two red flags. Kyle Larson, who won the race surviving a double overtime restart, found one major issue with the track that needs immediate attention.

Gateway has one of the narrowest pit-road in the history of the sport, making it more aggressive and chaotic. That exactly what happened in the second division that that caused a multi-car pile-up that needs to be avoided. The veteran champion admitted that the pit-road are too narrow and scary for everyone involved.

Scary scene on pit road with multiple cars involved in a big crash. pic.twitter.com/LRfyydLNAk

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I feel like as far as the racetrack itself and the racing surface, I think it’s good. It races well. You can be aggressive on restarts and all the things that kind of create chaos and make racing exciting. But yeah, I completely agree. I wish there was a way that they could somehow make pit road a little safer for those guys. It is so narrow. It is scary.

Kyle Larson said.

The champion driver highlighted how the crew members are in real danger when multiple cars pit-together. It’s paramount to make sure that the crew members are safe and won’t need to take any unnecessary risks. Kyle Larson wants NASCAR to create a situation where the drivers can focus more on the race other than keeping the rival crew or teammate crew safe.

Even for us, you know, like you leave your pit stall and there’s a guy two or three stalls in front of you pitting, and their crew members might be on the right side of their car, and you are all but clipping their ankles on the way by. So, you want to keep those guys safe. You want to keep everybody in the sport safe and on the other side of the fence in the grandstands as well.

Kyle Larson added via Rubbin’ is Racing.

Kyle Larson also wants NASCAR to fix exploding rotors

Later in the similar conversation, Larson also talked about the break rooter issue that ruined the race for many involved. He highlighted how it is a serious safety concern for both the fans as well as the crew in the pit-road.

I think we have to try to. And I’m not an engineer by any means, but I feel like we ought to keep these cars from exploding rotors because eventually there’s going to be a brake rotor that ends up in the stands and seriously hurts somebody. And then also, as we saw in the O’Reilly race, pit road can be very, very dangerous.

Kyle Larson said.

Further talking about the point, the Hendrick Motorsports’ defending Cup champion highlighted that redesign is really important for the pit-stop as well as the Next-Gen to avoid a potential tragedy. The race winner talking about it seems really on point.

I don’t know what the call would be like, you know, 10 feet you move in that wall, I think would help, but in general, I feel like they need a redesign of pit road and moving it in quite a bit to where we can enter pit road off Turn 4, so we don’t have to run that access road, things like that.

Kyle Larson added.

The comments from Larson shows NASCAR needs to get involved and immediately fix the issues to make sure the when the race returns to the track in 2027, it is safer. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the upcoming days.

Also Read: Ryan Blaney Has “All the Confidence in the World” in the 2026 Championship Chase