Sports
Employee Sounds Off on Kyle Larson’s Blatant Antics Potentially Jeopardizing Boss Denny Hamlin interest
Tyler Reddick’s eagerness to win in Las Vegas led to some aggressive moves. Similarly, his March rival Kyle Larson was equally excited to add a fourth win to his Sin City glorious streak. Consequences? Denny Hamlin got caught in the middle of it. Pit-stop mistakes haunted both Larson and Hamlin throughout. But amidst his team’s slip-up, Larson, whose career average finish of 9.3 at Las Vegas is the best among all active drivers, took out his frustration on Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota.
19 years he has waited to hold a Cup trophy – and Denny Hamlin is still waiting. A recovery from a disastrous Round of 16 with a top-ten in Bristol and a wild stroke of luck that pulled him through Talladega, what about the Round of 8 opener? Well, first, a snail-slow 13.4-second pit stop, and then, an older tire strategy fell flat. Hamlin went from 11th in Stage 1 to outside the top 20 in Stage 2.
And adding to his piling troubles was Kyle Larson‘s bizarre antics in Las Vegas. In Stage 1 of the South Point 400, Larson nudged Denny Hamlin’s car up the track near Turn 1. Hamlin eventually finished P8 which is impressive considering how challenging it was. Freddie Kraft, Bubba Wallace’s spotter, and Hamlin’s employee, evaluated what went down and believes what transpired between the two and the pit road disasters that led to the “wrong guy” (Joey Logano) winning on the latest episode of Door Bumper Clear today. Kraft said,
Denny’s the first one out at minus 27…I don’t know what happened there. There was a restart there, mid-part of the race where it looked like….there was a little bit of stack-up in the front and Larson just kind of drove into Denny. It gave himself nose damage, gave damage to Denny. Then they both had just awful days at pit road for whatever reason yesterday.
Kraft continued that there was no end to Denny Hamlin‘s misfortune – he left the race with a 27-point deficit. His championship bid took a further hit when Joey Logano won the race, shuffling up the playoff grid. “Larson still had a good, big enough cushion coming in. But Denny, like I said, one bad race will put you and the wrong guy wins.
“I think Joey was going to end up 4th in points, I think he’d be the cutline. And Denny would be like 15-16 out. Now he’s 27 out because of Joey winning. So you know, couple of dominoes falling the wrong way.”
Yet all hope is not lost, as Hamlin has three wins and six poles at Homestead, the venue for the next race. “You’re not in a must-win situation yet – Denny’s obviously really good at Homestead.”
Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher will form a ‘super team’ for Germany again at the Race of Champions in 2025, taking place in Sydney in March.
The popular annual event is often a prelude to the motorsport season getting underway in earnest, and Vettel and Schumacher will form Germany’s line-up in the Nations Cup for a fourth time when the event heads to Australia next year.
Schumacher finished as runner-up in the individual ROC event in its last running in 2023, losing out to World Rallycross and DTM champion Mattias Ekström back in 2023.
The German is currently being discussed as one of the candidates to fill the uncontracted seat at Sauber next season, with chief operating and chief technical officer Mattia Binotto having recently confirmed he is among the drivers being spoken about for a potential return to Formula 1.
Vettel won the ROC Nations Cup with Mick’s father, seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher on six occasions, while having finished as runner-up with the former Haas driver while he was in Formula 3 back in 2019.
Four-time World Champion Vettel won the Champion of Champions event in London back in 2015 and took the runner-up spot in 2022, with the duo uniting once again next year.
“I’m delighted to be coming back to the Race Of Champions and teaming up with Mick again,” Vettel said.
“It will be exciting to race in the former Olympic Stadium in Sydney that looks like it will be a great venue for the Race Of Champions.
“All the drivers who have the honour to participate in ROC fall in love with the event, because it reminds us about why we first started racing; pure competition and of course with the identical cars there are no excuses.
“I will do everything I can to help Germany win another ROC Nations Cup Title with Mick on the Friday evening, but I will not be doing him any favours when we are going for the outright win on the Saturday night, especially as he beat me in the semi-finals of the Individual ROC in Sweden in 2023!
“At ROC the racing is always intense on the track and everyone wants to win, but it’s also about putting on a great show for the fans.”
Schumacher added: “Australia is one of my favourite places and representing Germany together with Sebastian at ROC Sydney will for sure be big fun.
“After finishing 2nd in the individual ROC in Sweden in 2023 and in the ROC Nations Cup in ROC Mexico with Seb, the goal this time has to be the overall winners trophy both in the ROC Nations Cup on Friday night and in the individual Race Of Champions on Saturday.
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Lewis Hamilton’s shocking spin at the United States Grand Prix last Sunday brought an early end to his race weekend.
It also trimmed the number of race weekends he has left with Mercedes, before his move to Ferrari for the 2025 Formula 1 season, down to five.
With Mercedes sitting fourth in the Constructors’ Championship standings, and Hamilton currently sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, any dreams of one last championship with the Silver Arrows ended weeks ago. But that does not mean that Toto Wolff wants Hamilton’s final race weekends with the team to fizzle out, as the Mercedes boss discussed Sunday following the United States Grand Prix.
“[Ending the season on a high note], we are keen on that, but how his mindset is, and how the relationships are in the team, is as good as we ever had,” said Wolff to the media, including SB Nation, on Sunday evening in Mercedes’ hospitality space.
“First thing he said? He apologized for the incident,” continued Wolff, recalling what Hamilton said after his Lap 2 spin. “As I said before, I don’t think it was his fault. Something caught him out.
“So it’s great and we want to celebrate it, and finish on a high, and I’m sure we will. Whether we can do it with great performance in the car? That would be fantastic,” said Wolff.
“But if not, then we think we gave it our best shot.”
Chase Elliott is undoubtedly one of the most popular drivers in NASCAR right now. His #9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is also very popular and is synonymous with him. While the #9 car has a rich history, and is one of the most iconic numbers in stock car racing, for Elliott, it had an extra special meaning. Elliott inherited the number at Hendrick Motorsports to honor his father, Bill Elliott, a former NASCAR driver.
Chase a Cup Series champion, made his Cup Series debut with Hendrick Motorsports back in 2015. His first race was the 2015 STP 500 at Martinsville. Elliott’s debut car was the #25 Chevrolet that he drove with crew chief Kenny Francis.
His first full-time season with HMS was in 2016 when he took over the #24 Chevrolet from Jeff Gordon. Gordon decided to retire from the sport at the end of 2015, and HMS brought Elliott in for the #24. The Dawsonville-born driver drove the same car in his sophomore season as well.
Ahead of the 2018 season, Hendrick Motorsports announced Chase Elliott would take over the #9 car. The #24 was given to William Byron, and the former still drives the same numbered car. So why did Elliott change his number after two years?
He did so to honor his father, Bill Elliott. Elliott Sr. is a former NASCAR driver, a Cup Series champion, and a two-time Daytona 500 winner. He was popular for driving the #9 car in the NASCAR Cup Series, first doing so in 1976.
He continued driving the car for a significant amount of time, and as he kept on winning races, the number 9 became more popular every single year. Leaving aside a few breaks, Bill Elliott kept the #9 car with him till 2004.
Following Elliott Sr., Kasey Kahne, Marcos Ambrose, and Sam Hornish Jr., all drove the 9 car for Richard Petty Motorsports until Hendrick Motorsports claimed the number back. Eventually, Chase Elliott inherited the #9 car in 2018 and continues to drive the same.
