HAMPTON, Ga. — Kyle Larson took responsibility for the accident with Shane van Gisbergen and Tyler Reddick that eliminated Larson from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway. As a result, the reigning series champion was credited with a 32nd-place finish.
“I just messed up. I knew the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) was inside of me at one point of the corner, but I got clear of him,” Larson said. “I didn’t quite realize that the No. 97 (Shane van Gisbergen) had gotten inside of him. So once I was clear, I just wanted to cut distance and short-cut my way to the stage finish. The No. 97 was out of my mirror. I just hung a quick left and ran right into him. There was nothing anyone else did wrong, it was all on me.”
Larson finished 16th in the Daytona 500.
• Zane Smith scored his second consecutive top-10 finish to start the season, bringing the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford home in seventh spot. Smith finished eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500.
“My Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford Mustang didn’t start out great. It had speed, but it was a lot to manage, and then as we got through the race we just kept working on it and I felt like we made big gains at one point in time, and then we got to the front row and I had a loose left-rear tire after we took right side tires, so I have no idea how that happened,” Smith said. “I’m just glad we didn’t wreck because it was a handful, and then after that I had a little right-front damage, but was able to charge back up through the field and have a shot at it somewhat. My gut told me to take the bottom there and it was looking really good for a second, but I just needed a little bit more help. I’m proud of everyone.”
• Carson Hocevar made up two laps and challenged for the victory before finishing fourth on Sunday. However, the Spire Chevrolet driver didn’t make any friends along the way, having contact with Christopher Bell and others during the course of his charge to the front.
“I was really happy with this No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet. Our car was really fast to go from two laps down to getting stage points and finishing fourth,” Hocevar said. “Overall, it was a good points day for us. I was taking every run I could.
“I’m sure I owe people apologies, but I think we’re all battling for spaces and runs. At the end, all four tires were straight. My toe was knocked out, but it was still pretty fast. Pretty excited about a strong start to the season.”
• Brad Keselowski led 10 laps, but lacked long-run speed and finished 17th on Sunday.
“It was an up-and-down day,” Keselowski said. “It didn’t end great, but there were times we had a lot of speed. We were just missing a little bit of handling to keep it there at the end.”
• Ryan Blaney ran near the front most of the race and brought his Team Penske Ford home 10th.
“We had a little bit of a different strategy there in the second stage,” Blaney said. “We topped off once and then that gave us the ability to take less gas and two just to try and get some track position and we had it. We had good control of it for a while and then just lost control of it there and that was the end of it.”
• Ross Chastain drove the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to a third-place finish.
“We needed to be turning better with our No. 1 Wendy’s Chevy today,” Chastain said. “We were just a little too tight in traffic, and then even in clean air, we were scrubbing the fronts too much.
“We were never quite good enough to get control of the race. We’re always trying to cycle forward. Brandon McSwain (crew chief) made some great calls from the pit box.”
• Daniel Suarez, who is a former winner at EchoPark Speedway drove his Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to a fifth-place finish, one spot behind teammate Carson Hocevar.
“I’m very, very proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. I couldn’t be prouder, honestly. This team just continues to fight; continues to show up and continues to get better,” Suarez said. “They never doubt that we can make the car better. I can’t thank everyone at Chevrolet and the Hendrick Engine Shop for the power under the hood. We just need to keep cleaning a few things up to keep getting better, but very excited for the start of the season.”
• Connor Zilisch has had a difficult start to his rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 19-year-old Trackhouse Racing wheelman has been involved in accidents in both races. He finished 33rd at Daytona and 30th Sunday at EchoPark Speedway.
“I couldn’t see much, really. I was behind the No. 48 (Alex Bowman). He checked up and I just didn’t quite have enough time to check up,” Zilisch said. “I couldn’t see what was going on in front of the No. 48. He had a gap in front of him and he could see it. It’s unfortunate for the No. 88 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet team. We were making moves and getting up toward the front. It’s just unfortunate for it to end like that.”
The sports car racing graduate will be among those to be next week as the series visits Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.
• Bubba Wallace was a contender for victory for the second consecutive week and came up short again. Wallace, who finished 10th at Daytona, led 46 laps Sunday at EchoPark Speedway and finished eighth, while 23XI Racing teammate won for the second straight race.
“Yeah, I’m just pumped that Toyota got to victory lane. I need to go back see. I didn’t think I moved up that much to allow – to put myself in the top of three,” Wallace said. “Unfortunate, but what a race car we had today. I learned a lot from Rajah (Caruth) yesterday. He had a bad fast car, and he finished second the first stage and won the second stage, just like me, and I was like this car is so fast. Don’t do anything to jeopardize a good finish. I hate that we didn’t get the win, but all-in-all, I appreciate Xfinity – man what could have been.”