“He’s obviously really good, I hope to get to race him on an oval.” Kyle Larson on Ty Gibbs topping him at Road America Xfinity race
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Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs
Kyle Larson drives the No.5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series contender while also running part-time in the No.17 Chevrolet Camaro SS in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the same team, Hendrick Motorsports. Larson is pulling double-duty this weekend as he returned to racing in the Xfinity Series after four years with his last one being in 2018 and during his time on the track in the Henry 180 at Road America where he won the first two stages before losing to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs in the last lap.
Kyle Larson is now popularly known as the reigning champion after emerging as the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion but before that, he wasn’t sure if he would ever enter a car again after having to face suspension for using a racial slur on the iRacing platform which happened in 2020, Larson was running for Chip Ganassi Racing ever since his start in the Cup Series from 2013 and following his indefinite suspension in 2020, he filed for his reinstatement which was approved and he was signed by Hendrick Motorsports for 2021 and the rest is history.
“I could have easily just shoved him. But I didn’t think that’d be the fair way to win,” Kyle Larson during a post-race interview after getting nudged by Ty Gibbs
Kyle Larson was surely having his best time after returning to the second-tier series of NASCAR but as he had led most of the race and he conveyed that he was forced to improvise by Ty Gibbs running right behind him and he eventually had to give up his lead after having miscalculated on turn 3 and he also added that he was focused on his race while he had no clue while racing that it was not the Cup Series until later while also adding that he didn’t feel it would be morally right to slam into him and move him out of the way.
“Gibbs did a good job of getting me to have to kind of change my angles up there those first couple of corners, then, I overshot turn 3 just a little bit and wasn’t able to get the wheel turned like I needed, and yeah, he got by. I wasn’t thinking at all about his championship while I was racing, you know, he passed me clean, so I didn’t feel like it would have been right for me to go and move him out of the way,” said Kyle Larson.
Kyle Larson further added by saying that he could have overtaken him by running into him at the end of turn 12 but he felt obligated to do that and was also aware that it was ethically wrong, he concluded by praising Ty Gibbs for the kind of racer he is and by judging by the way he races and he can tell that he’s good on road courses and hopes to race him one day on the speedways.
“When he protected in turn 12, I could have easily just shoved him through there and won the race. But I didn’t think that’d be the fair way to win. He’s obviously really good. Watching, I feel like you can tell a good race-car driver by from the road courses and he’s always run really well on the road courses since he started, so I knew he was gonna be really good. I hope to get to race him on an oval,” concluded Kyle Larson.
With Kyle Larson pulling off his first double-duty in a long time, will we witness him doing this sometime soon again?
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