Kyle Larson claims ‘Dirty air’ cost his Hendrick Motorsport teammate William Byron a win at Richmond

Kyle Larson claims ‘Dirty air’ cost his Hendrick Motorsport teammate William Byron a win at Richmond

Kyle Larson and William Byron

Hendrick Motorsports was all set to celebrate their 4th race win of the 2022 season and William Byron’s 2md victory of 2022 but all that took an immediate 360-degree turn as veterans Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick made their way up the grid eventually taking home the top2 respectively.  

William Byron, who led the second-most laps of the day, was amazed by the sudden onslaught from the veterans and his old tires cost him the P1 at Richmond. His teammate and 2021 Cup Series Kyle Larson also had to fight too hard to hold on to a top 5 finish as his old tires also started failing him.

Now the reigning champion has come forth suggesting that the presence of string dirty air caused his teammate William Byron a win at Richmond Raceway.

FS Video

Find out what Kyle Larson said

Kyle Larson
Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson said that the dirty air was really hard and horrible on the track on Sunday pointing toward his teammate, William Byron who finished P3 on Sunday, struggling to keep the lead with the dirty air were as he was able to drive smooth when he was not on the lead. He acknowledged that it is so hard to manage dirty air but added that he believes the team has done the best they could.  

“Dirty air was just really hard. I mean it was you know dirty air was horrible today. You could see it with William like he once he got out of the lead you know, staying out he was really good but before that, we just got done passing him and all that,” Kyle Larson said.

“So, in green flag cycles, I could rip you know clean air and pitch the group in front of me and then just be stuck. So hard to manage it but felt like we did the best with this,” Kyle Larson added.

The reigning Cup Series Champion will hit the Martinsville Speedway, Ridgeway for Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400, and will be hoping that he will be able to overturn his continuous streak of disappointing finishes using this weekend’s P5 finish momentum.

Also read: NASCAR reveals four new Hall of Fame nominees for the 2023 class