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Ryan Blaney came close to winning the Goodyear 400, but after Kyle Larson went off the track, the caution flag changed everything for the great driver. Blaney does not have a single win this season, and although he expected this race to be an opportunity to catapult himself to the top, the popular driver failed to do so. Jeff Gluck tried to analyze the situation, sharing his views about this incident.
“Kyle Larson had been — I guess Larson was being told by his spotter, ‘Hey, [Reddick’s] starting to run high here, you might want to check up a little bit.’ Then, as [Reddick] gets in the wall — Larson had been trying to stay out of the way, because Larson wrecked earlier in the race,” Jeff Gluck stated, as quoted by On3.
“He’s back out there, he’s trying to stay out of the way, they’re just trying to learn some things. He sees Reddick go into the fence, and [Larson] was already starting to run high. So, Larson gets on the brakes really hard. Obviously, Bubba didn’t realize that Larson was going to check up that hard. Slows down — I mean, he can’t slow down in time. He slows down to some degree and plows into Larson, spins him out, which sets up this caution.
Gluck explains the situation
Gluck continued, saying that Blaney's was told on radio that the driver with number 23 spun out the driver with number 5, having a favorable situation. However, after seeing the footage afterwards, it was clear that Larson had slowed up significantly. It turns out that Kyle braked to avoid a collision, but Wallace was unable to slow down in time, hitting him in the back.
Although some fans stressed that this was intentional, it turned out to be a mistake, which cost Blaney.
Denny Hamlin took advantage of the momentum and won this race.
English (US)