Two months after his heart was broken by a botched attempt at the Indy 500/Coke 600 double, Kyle Larson made his way back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday and won the Brickyard 400.
That signified the end of a fantastic tale. Some fans of NASCAR thought the story was too fantastic to be true. After Larson’s very contentious victory, some fans speculated that NASCAR might have manipulated the results to favor Larson.
Larson moved quickly all day. However, as the laps came to an end, he discovered that he was trailing both Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney in the race.
The field was grouped together by a late-race caution, which appeared to provide Larson one final chance to win. The Brickyard 400 Win for Kyle Larson Was Extremely Controversial Larson moved up to first position on the restart when Keselowski ran out of gasoline and went off the circuit before the restart.
When the race resumed, Blaney stayed in second place and saw Larson take the lead using the preferred line. A second collision shortly afterward sent the race back under yellow and into overtime.
“There’s no way they should’ve let that go green. That’s ridiculous,” Blaney said on the radio. “They just GAVE it to him (Kyle Larson). It’s f—— over, I’m on the top. I ain’t gonna win from the top. Gave it to f—— golden boy. Son of a b—-.”
But things would get even more contentious.
On the preferred line, Larson drove away from Blaney as the race restarted, and Kyle Larson, the pole sitter, passed Blaney for second place.
Driver Ryan Preece spun out at that point and collided with the interior wall. At the time, a caution would have resulted in a restart. Rather, NASCAR held off on raising the yellow flag for more over half a lap. Larson was able to see the white flag and cross the start-finish line as a result, thereby finishing the race.
Fans felt NASCAR manipulated the finish to get its preferred winner.
“What a f—— joke. @NASCAR 100% manipulated that finish, they knew Preece was dead on the back stretch and intentionally waited for Larson to take the white flag before they called for caution. F—— horrendous,” one fan tweeted.
“rigged so Larson would prevail. NASCAR is utterly worthless. It ought to have been a warning, and it was in the past, much sooner. It is really absurd,” remarked someone else. Elton Sawyer, director of NASCAR competition, asserted that the series made the appropriate decision.
Naturally, Sawyer stated, “we’d like for it to play out naturally.” “We want our teams to sprint to the finish line. We exerted every effort that we could. We watched the 41 closely. He turned around. He was really making an attempt, but after he stopped and it became apparent that he might have a flat left rear tire, he was not going to continue. We were unable to sprint by the white again, even though we had already taken it. Thus, although regrettable, the decision was the right one.
But fans didn’t see it that way.
As for the “Golden Boy” label, Larson was happy to take it.
What’s done is done. But NASCAR has a lot of work to do to get back in the good graces of its fans.
