Kyle Larson emerged as the victor of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen following a late race restart in which he was alongside his Hendrick Motorsports teammate in Chase Elliott.
The last two NASCAR champions took to the first corner of the track, with Larson moving higher on the racing line as the turn got deeper. Larson said after the race that he wasn’t proud of the move, on multiple occasions.
“I knew that was kind of my only opportunity,” Larson said on the postrace broadcast on USA Network. “I’m not proud of it.” “That was my only opportunity to get by him. I knew our cars were pretty equal today.”
The race winning move that got Kyle Larson the win in today's #NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International:
🎥 @NASCAR pic.twitter.com/XCSCInGvnW
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) August 21, 2022
Larson said he would want to have a conversation with Elliott if the move went the other way, and it will likely be had during Sunday’s competition meeting at the team headquarters.
“I think if I was in his shoes, I would understand the risk I’m taking (picking left lane) as well,” Larson said. “It’s part of road racing. I’m not proud of it, but we did what we had to do.”
When asked after the race for his thoughts, a visibly frustrated Chase Elliott only gave congratulations to his teammate.
“Just a huge congratulations to Kyle, the 5 team and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports,” Elliott said. “Congratulations. They did a great job.”
NASCAR Cup Series results
Go Bowling 400
Watkins Glen International
Sun. August 21, 2022
1. Kyle Larson
2. AJ Allmendinger
3. Joey Logano
4. Chase Elliott
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Michael McDowell
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Christopher Bell
9. Christopher Buescher
10. Erik Jones
11. Cole Custer
12. Kevin Harvick
13. Austin Cindric
14. Alex Bowman
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
16. Ty Dillon
17. Austin Dillon
18. Justin Haley
19. Brad Keselowski
20. Denny Hamlin
21. Ross Chastain
22. William Byron
23. Martin Truex Jr
24. Ryan Blaney
25. Chase Briscoe
26. Ty Gibbs
27. Corey LaJoie
28. Harrison Burton
29. Aric Almirola
30. Mike Rockenfeller
31. Joey Hand
32. Kyle Busch
33. Loris Hezemans
34. Cody Ware
35. Bubba Wallace
36. Daniil Kvyat
37. Kimi Raikkonen
38. Todd Gilliland
39. Kyle Tilley
