Did Kyle Larsen back out of it at Homestead?

B

Blister

Guest
His 3rd place finish has kind of gotten lost in the stories of Truex winning, Busch not able to pass him, Dale Jr retiring, etc. But the more I think about it the closer I have come to the conclusion that Larsen backed out of it at the end of that race. No matter what he may say. He was one of the, of not the, fastest cars all day. Caught the leaders with ease and then just sort of settled in behind Busch. Almost like he didn't want to take the chance of getting in the mix and getting blamed for screwing up the finish between the two contenders for the title. Maybe not. Maybe he burned his tires up getting there. But he sure caught them awful fast for the car to just bog down.
 
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I didn't see the race so I can't make a determination but, IMO, if you are entered into a race and can't go all out and do everything to win you might as well just stay home or in Larson's case autograph T-Shirts for 50 bucks an hour. I am a competitive person so even if it was a game of Monopoly and someone told me I could play but I couldn't do my best against a couple of the players they would here a string of words ending withn"shove it up your rump." IMO it can never be made right and it is the opposite of sporting if you can't do your very best so I hope Larson did but just the fact that this is even open for discussion is another embarrassment and indictment of Nascar, IMO.
 
I don't know if he did or not but he was smart not to get involved. He could be in that position next year and wouldn't want someone to cost him.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
I didn't see the race so I can't make a determination but, IMO, if you are entered into a race and can't go all out and do everything to win you might as well just stay home or in Larson's case autograph T-Shirts for 50 bucks an hour. I am a competitive person so even if it was a game of Monopoly and someone told me I could play but I couldn't do my best against a couple of the players they would here a string of words ending withn"shove it up your rump." IMO it can never be made right and it is the opposite of sporting if you can't do your very best so I hope Larson did but just the fact that this is even open for discussion is another embarrassment and indictment of Nascar, IMO.
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How is this an "indictment on NASCAR" or "embarrassing? Because someone posted a question on a message board? Come on man
 
I think he could have won it, but then decided he didn't want to take a chance on getting in the way of the championship contenders. He caught Kyle Busch so easily, and then backed it off after a handful of laps instead of going for the pass .. that looked pretty obvious.
 
Blister said:
His 3rd place finish has kind of gotten lost in the stories of Truex winning, Busch not able to pass him, Dale Jr retiring, etc. But the more I think about it the closer I have come to the conclusion that Larsen backed out of it at the end of that race. No matter what he may say. He was one of the, of not the, fastest cars all day. Caught the leaders with ease and then just sort of settled in behind Busch. Almost like he didn't want to take the chance of getting in the mix and getting blamed for screwing up the finish between the two contenders for the title. Maybe not. Maybe he burned his tires up getting there. But he sure caught them awful fast for the car to just bog down.
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Yeah, he didn't want to be in the middle of that rodeo.
 
Imo Larson didn't want to be the guy who caused a lost championship . He's gotta race the same guys next year. Why would you fire a guy who has a good shot at winning it all next season over not winning a race that means nothing
 
It looked to me like he was running right at the wall and burned out his tires and started to get loose. I noticed he bobbled really close to the wall a couple of times.

He probably backed off to avoid a wreck.
 
On the flip side, it would have been wise of Kyle and Truex to just let Larson go if he was that much faster. Big picture racing. Kyle could have probably benefited from pulling over for Larson and letting him get up to Truex. Might have been able to set up some sort of last lap pass if they got to racing at all.
 
I was selfishly hoping Larson would mix it up with Busch, thus helping Truex to pull a gap. As it turned out, Truex didn't need any help... ;)

I have no problem with Larson showing respect for the championship battle. I believe he was searching for an opportunity to sweep past both of 'em in one fell swoop, but absent that opportunity, didn't want to risk being "that guy" who decided the championship outcome.

I also have no problem with Ryan Preece following his own agenda, nor Joey Logano, although Joey didn't press his issue much. Joey rolled out and let the 18 get by PDQ.
 
Spotter22 said:
How is this an "indictment on NASCAR" or "embarrassing? Because someone posted a question on a message board? Come on man
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If Nascar essentially tells drivers they can't race the lottery boys like they would anyone else it is disgrace an embarrassment and an indictment. If you feel that not being allowed to race all the drivers is OK I will just disagree agreeably.
 
Larson wasn't as fast as he was earlier, if he was still that fast he could have pasted them without getting involved.
 
It looked like he hit the brakes once for sure to keep from hitting KDB. Busch was trying different lines and one of his attempts was really slow and Larson almost rear ended him when Busch drifted up to the wall. Busch went back to his old line that was faster and got the gap back on Larson but slower than Truex is what I saw. If Larson got off of the fence he would have fallen back quickly I believe. It was his only chance to stay with the 2 higher downforce Yotas in front of him...now a late caution restart with new tires? Larson would have waxed them both IMO he did it numerous times in the regular season.
 
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Skoalbandit33 said:
If Nascar essentially tells drivers they can't race the lottery boys like they would anyone else it is disgrace an embarrassment and an indictment. If you feel that not being allowed to race all the drivers is OK I will just disagree agreeably.
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NASCAR never has nor ever will tell a driver not to race a Championship driver, they will tell them not to be a deciding factor in who wins the championship, as in wrecking one of them, doing something stupid, etc....
 
Spotter22 said:
NASCAR never has nor ever will tell a driver not to race a Championship driver, they will tell them not to be a deciding factor in who wins the championship, as in wrecking one of them, doing something stupid, etc....
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If I am a driver not in the lotto I am going to race everyone the same way I have in the other 35 races so if you have raced me hard but clean I will do the same for you but if you have been a dick to me I will give you the same consideration in return. If Nascar doesn't like it they can black flag me or set up a race for the 4 lotto guys.
 
Spotter22 said:
Race car drivers dont give anything at the end of a race they are in a position to win. If he says he did I'd fire him today.
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It sounds to me like Kyle Busch would be a better driver for you if you had a team...he wouldn't care if he caused a wreck that screwed up the finish of a championship race for the drivers, teams, or the fans.
 
Nitro Dude said:
It sounds to me like Kyle Busch would be a better driver for you if you had a team...he wouldn't care if he caused a wreck that screwed up the finish of a championship race for the drivers, teams, or the fans.
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Who said anything about wrecking them? Thats right, you did.
 
Spotter22 said:
Who said anything about wrecking them? Thats right, you did.
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Your damn right I did...and if he was driving for me and he caused a wreck that changed the out come of the championship I would fire him in a heart beat.
 
Spotter22 said:
Race car drivers dont give anything at the end of a race they are in a position to win. If he says he did I'd fire him today.
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It's called being considerate.

Gordon did the same thing a few years ago.

He was untouchable. A late caution came out and he said he didn't want to be in the middle of the championship so he pitted. Restarted in the mid 20s and finished in the top 10 with around 15 or so laps to go.

The trouble is not worth the headache you would get. We saw it in the Xfinity with Sadler and the guy was actually racing for something so go figure.
 
I really dont know if he did or not did not I was not in the car with him to make that bold statement, no of us where, but is post race interview he made it sound like he was not backing out because of the kindness that he has in his heart.
 
Nitro Dude said:
Your damn right I did...and if he was driving for me and he caused a wreck that changed the out come of the championship I would fire him in a heart beat.
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Obviously you arent a racer, you go ahead and castrate your driver if you want too and I'll beat you every week.

Skoalbandit33 said:
If I am a driver not in the lotto I am going to race everyone the same way I have in the other 35 races so if you have raced me hard but clean I will do the same for you but if you have been a dick to me I will give you the same consideration in return. If Nascar doesn't like it they can black flag me or set up a race for the 4 lotto guys.
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You can race however you want and if you do something stupid they will put you on the lift gate. That simple

Reck said:
It's called being considerate.

Gordon did the same thing a few years ago.

He was untouchable. A late caution came out and he said he didn't want to be in the middle of the championship so he pitted. Restarted in the mid 20s and finished in the top 10 with around 15 or so laps to go.

The trouble is not worth the headache you would get. We saw it in the Xfinity with Sadler and the guy was actually racing for something so go figure.
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Jeff Gordon never had a winning car and mailed it in. NEVER, dont kid yourself.

24ever said:
Am I the only one who noticed he bounced of the wall real hard with about 5 to go?
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Sure did, but dont let facts get in the way of a good story.
 
Reck said:
LOL OK..

View attachment 30439

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Over 161 laps led to boot.

But you're right. Out to lunch.
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If it is the race I recall (I will be the first to admit to a swiss cheese memory) Alan had kept him out on a yellow, then there was another one a couple laps later and Jeff was screaming they were going to be killed on the old tires and Alan told him to come in if he wanted to. Jeff did and rebounded back to 10th from the upper teens on new tires.

Might have been a different race though. Just remember listening to that conversation on the fanvision. It was not friendly. I was kind of shocked he kept Alan the next year.

Yeah probably off track for the thread.
 
Larson drove into the back of the 18 instead of making a move. What’s that say?
 
Pretty sure Larson smacked the wall like 4 times in the final ten laps. He couldn't run the bottom, he certainly wasn't going to send it in there and slide up into KyBu. He was still obviously trying. I don't understand everyone's insane desire for controversy.
 
DUN24 said:
Pretty sure Larson smacked the wall like 4 times in the final ten laps. He couldn't run the bottom, he certainly wasn't going to send it in there and slide up into KyBu. He was still obviously trying. I don't understand everyone's insane desire for controversy.
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Lol what, are you new here or something ?
:laugh::laugh:
 
Spotter22 said:
Jeff Gordon never had a winning car and mailed it in. NEVER, dont kid yourself.
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Lol what the hell?

He all but dominated that race, he had the car to beat all night. Pulled it into the pits late on a failed tire strategy.

The man said it himself.

We dominated that race, had a car that I think could have and should have won that race. But we all came in and got four tires, they throw the green, and caution comes out in three or four laps. We stay out, and I think we went one more round of green-flag run, four or five laps, and caution comes out again.

"At that point, that's where the race changed for us and really took us out of contention, because we decided to stay out, and all those other guys decided to come in, and there were just too many cautions at the end."

Stop being a troll.
 
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