MADISON, Ill. — After waiting two minutes for Kyle Larson to speak with reporters, Ryan Blaney butted in for clarification. He wanted an answer for a Lap 135 skirmish with the No. 5 Chevrolet during Sunday‘s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
“I just asked what I did to deserve getting turned,” Blaney stated. “He said he made a mistake, and I don‘t think he did it on purpose, but at the end of the day I got spun around.”
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway
The two former Cup Series champions had a hard-nosed battle for fifth position, spanning multiple laps. They jockeyed back and forth before Blaney got ahead. Larson dove off into Turn 3 and washed up the race track and tagged the left-rear quarter panel of the No. 12 car. Blaney spun to bring out the caution.
“I misjudged it,” Larson said. “The lap before, I went in, I was able to get to his door and get him tight. The next time, I was trying to do the same thing and wasn‘t going to get there and was going to tuck back in line and just clipped him. He should be upset. I just misjudged it.”
Believing he had the faster car, Larson wanted to jump on the opportunity to get ahead of Blaney. Hounding the No. 12 car for several laps, frustration grew but he ultimately mistimed his speed in the center of the corner.
“It was frustrating, but it didn‘t warrant me to get into him or anything like that,” Larson added. “The first time I got to his inside, I was expecting him to not necessarily let me go and he left me room, but I ran into [Turn] 1 hard and he chased me in and I was sideways underneath him and was kind of like, ‘OK, we‘re going to be racing hard for this position going forward’ — and we did. It led to me making contact with him a few laps later.
“It wasn‘t anything malicious and I probably hurt his second stage and potentially his finish, but it wasn‘t on purpose.”
After a quick stoppage of action, Larson earned seven stage points by finishing fourth in a one-lap dash to conclude Stage 2. Blaney missed out on valuable stage points, dropping to 17th in the running order.
With strategy all over the board and having a hot rod, Blaney drove back to fourth position at the checkered flag. Larson was on the wrong side of a late caution with 32 laps remaining when Ty Dillon had a brake rotor explode. Championship-winning crew chief Cliff Daniels called the No. 5 car to pit road during the caution, believing tires would play a role in the outcome. Larson drove up to finish just 12th despite leading 52 laps.
WATCH: Blaney: ‘That’s one I’ve got to remember’
Rebounding to fourth notched Blaney‘s 11th top-five finish of the season, one shy of his career high of 12 (2022 and 2024) and tied with Larson for third-most this year. Had it not been for Blaney’s late charge, the chat with Larson may have gone differently, Blaney noted.
“If we (hadn’t) recovered as well as we did, it probably would have been a different conversation,” he said. “I just tried to get an understanding (why) he came from all the way at the bottom of the race track all the way up and hit me in the left rear, so I was just trying to get a clear understanding of that.
“Even though it wasn‘t done with malicious intent, I‘ll still remember it. I still got the [expletive] end of it and got turned around and had to come from the back. You remember stuff like that. It‘s not anything grudgey or something like that; it‘s just those racing situations that you think about the next time you run with that person. You probably run them a little tighter and don‘t give them as much space. There is no ill-will or anything; it‘s just racing people how I get raced.”
Both drivers are in solid points positions entering the Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Larson has the biggest cushion — 60 points — of drivers who haven‘t advanced via victories. Blaney is fifth on the playoff grid, 42 points above the line.
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