Kyle Larson, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro, said he was okay after a massive impact with the wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500.
Kyle Larson wrecks on the last lap of the Daytona 500 via NASCAR YouTube
Larson slammed into the wall on the last lap of the race after being hit from behind by Travis Pastrana.
Immediately after taking the white flag, Larson had a huge run and darted to the outside of eventual winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. However, the run would quickly fade as no one followed and he quickly lost his momentum. As he began to fade through the field, Travis Pastrana would lose control of his car after receiving a bump from Aric Almirola.
Pastrana’s car went down the track and caught the rear of Larson’s vehicle spinning him nose first into the outside wall.
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Following the race, Larson spoke with reporter Noah Lewis and indicated he was okay.
He said, “I’m okay. It was definitely a huge hit. … It was definitely one of the bigger ones I’ve ever had. But thankfully, you know, car held up, I guess, and all my safety equipment was fine. And I’m fine.”
Larson went on to explain what happened from his point of view, “Just a bummer. Felt like we had — everybody in the top four to six has the opportunity to win there. I had such run from the 20. I didn’t know what to do with it. I felt like where I was going to the get to the 47, I wanted to stay committed to him at least through 1 and 2 and down the back stretch, and then have things work out.”
“I definitely didn’t want to try and go for the lead as early as I did. I just had such a run, I didn’t know what to do with it and I thought if I got to him where I was going to get to him it was just going to choke us up or cause a crash and then we weren’t gonna win,” he elaborated.
Larson added, “Wish I could play that over again. But happy that Ricky won. I mean that’s all I could think about after I crashed was just waiting to get out and hear that he won. Super happy for him, and his team, Chevrolet, and everybody, but wish I could have, at least, finished.”
Kyle Larson via Noah Lewis YouTube
Larson then reiterated, “I wish I would have been able to finish and win the race. I felt good about it. I felt like I was in a great opportunity, great spot to win. But ultimately, it didn’t work out. And I knew the nine was out, the 24 was out, the 48 was not in position to win there before I got crashed. So I was just hoping that the 47 had somehow got back to the lead before the caution flag fell.”
When asked why much of the race was incident free until the very end, Larson responded, “This package, for whatever reason, you can’t run three-wide so it just stays [two-wide]. We all know that now too. So we all just stay two-wide. You don’t go anywhere.”
“It kind of is what it is. I would like for them to try and tweak the package. I don’t know what it takes to make it three-wide racing or whatever. It just makes it really calm until the end and it’s kind of frustrating when you get stuck fourth, fifth row on back. You have nowhere to go.”
Kyle Larson wrecks on the last lap of the Daytona 500 via NASCAR YouTube
Larson ended up finishing the race in 18th after starting the race in 2nd.
What do you make of Larson’s comments following the hard hit?
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