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Fans were divided on the contact between Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch during the last lap of Stage 2 in Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 at the World Wide Technology Raceway. Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson were battling it out for the seventh position at the time.
Right around the corner, Larson's Chevy got loose and rear-bumper'd Busch's number 8 machine, which then ran into the wall. As a result, the Richard Childress Racing driver suffered a DNF while Larson finished tenth.
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Several fans reacted to the contact between the two drivers, with one stating that Kyle Larson did not deserve a waiver for the Cup Series playoffs.
"Fraud doesn’t deserve a waiver," the fan said.
However, another fan felt it was Busch who had wrecked himself.
"Busch wrecked himself again," the fan's comment read.
Here are a few other mixed fan reactions to the collision between Busch and Larson:
"Best driver in the world” can’t race side by side lmaoooooo," said a fan referring to an earlier comment made by Michael McDowell on Kyle Larson.
"Larson fault can't cants say otherwise," wrote another fan.
"KB your time has come. Either leave RCR and stop being washed or just retire," a fan said.
"KB mad that he’s washed now," added another one.
After Sunday's race, Kyle Busch stands 17th in the Cup Series point standings with 348 points, whereas Kyle Larson moved up a spot to second with 513 points.
Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch give their takes on the wreck
Larson initially felt he had a flat tire that made his car go loose. Nevertheless, he said, he had barely touched Busch's car before that. Larson added that Busch might have gotten "ticked off" by Larson side-drafting him and therefore retaliated by pressing into his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.
"Yeah we were coming to the end of that stage," recalled the 2021 Cup Series champion. "I was a little bit better than him and left four to side-draft him and barely touched his quarter panel and I don’t know, I guess it ticked him off and he squeezed into me,”
"I honestly thought I had a flat when I turned into one because it just turned around backwards, but I guess he must have just took the air off of me and spun," he explained.
However, Kyle Busch had a rather different view of the incident. Suggesting whose fault it was, the two-time Cup Series champion said as reported by On3:
"You have pretty good eyes...I’m sure it’s my fault. Hate it for my guys, everybody on the Rebel Camaro. We can’t afford days like this. So, hate it for them and trying to race for a playoff spot and gradually falling there a bit and just – yeah he got loose and wiped us out."
Busch was the defending winner at the Gateway and Sunday's race took his winless draught to 36 races. Kyle Larson, on the other hand, registered his seventh Top-10 finish. The 31-year-old has two race wins to his name so far in 2024, triumphing in Las Vegas and Kansas.
