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Harvick wondered aloud what Larson was doing
when the driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet turned up the track
after Harvick moved down to side-draft the Chip Ganassi Racing
machine.
Larson questioned why Harvick would race him so hard for
position so early in a 200-lap event.
But after Larson recovered to run second to race winner Martin
Truex Jr., and Harvick rolled home 35th in a heavily damaged
car, the drivers were far more conciliatory.
"I went down to side-draft, and he (Larson) was coming up and we
touched, and it just knocked the thing to the right and spun
out," Harvick said after watching the video replay. "I don't
know that it's his fault. I think that's my fault for coming
down the race track right there and trying to side-draft, and
then as we touch it just came back up the race track.
"I was just trying to get a little too much right there. I knew
the stage was coming (to an end). I've just got to thank all of
my guys. They did a great job on our Busch Beer Ford, and it was
just my fault back there.
"That was just a dumb mistake on my part. ... The race car was
there. It was just a mistake."
Larson likewise took a more amicable tone after his runner-up
result.
"We were racing really hard, and I was better than him in
(Turns) 3 and 4, and he was better than me in (Turns) 1 and 2,"
Larson said.
"I would side-draft him down the frontstretch, and he would
side-draft me down the backstretch, and I don't know if he was
just coming down to side-draft me or what, but we made contact
and it spun his car to the right. So you never want to make
contact with anybody, but all in all, it was a good day for our
DC Solar Chevrolet team."
KYLE BUSCH DISAPPOINTED WITH THIRD-PLACE RUN
You couldn't call Sunday a bad day for Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle
Busch.
After all, the driver of the No. 18 Toyota led 62 laps in
Sunday's Auto Club 400, second only to race winner Martin Truex
Jr. And though Busch finished third behind Truex and Kyle
Larson, he held second place in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
Series standings, nine points behind Truex, who took over the
lead.
The problem was that Busch expected better after a strong
showing in Saturday's practice. But clearly, his Toyota team has
some catching up to do relative to Truex's squad at Furniture
Row.
Where was Busch's car losing time to Truex's?
"Everywhere," Busch said succinctly. "Just thought we were
closer than that, but obviously not. We were right on top of the
78 (Truex) Saturday. The first run, I thought we were really
good and showed some strength, but from there on out showed no
strength."
Busch took the checkered flag more than 12 seconds behind Truex.
DENNY HAMLIN SCORES ANOTHER QUIET TOP 10
When Denny Hamlin finds some short-run speed, he'll be
dangerous.
Hamlin overcame a pit-road snafu to finish sixth in Sunday's
Auto Club 400, lowering his average finish through five Monster
Energy NASCAR Cup Series races to 6.8. Hamlin is also sixth in
the series standings after Sunday's race.
However, his team still has work to do to contend with the
fastest cars in the series.
"We just had a mistake on our pit stop," Hamlin said. "I flew
through my box again. Once I got that remedied, it looked like
we're some somewhere around a fourth- or fifth-place car -- even
a third-place at times. In the long run, we were exceptional,
but we were just too slow on the short run to keep up.
"Those guys would pull seven seconds on us, and we'd maintain
after that and gain a little. We were letting these guys stretch
a little on us too much in the short run. Overall, a good day
for our FedEx Camry, but we wanted to get a top five there. We
were really in it there at the end of the race with the leaders,
but we didn't have enough time."
--By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level
Media.
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