Kyle Larson's spotter admits to making mistake that led to clash with Chase Elliott

Sunday’s WISE Power 400 saw Kyle Larson and Joey Logano compete side by side for the lead with 22 laps to go. Chase Elliot, who was running in third, attempted an outside pass to take the lead over Larson. Unfortunately, he made contact with his team-mate’s #5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. As a result, Elliott went into the wall and suffered damage.

Several hours after the incident, Larson’s spotter, Tyler Monn, posted a tweet taking responsibility for the incident. He claimed it was his fault for not alerting the driver sooner that Elliott's #9 Chevrolet was coming on his outside.

Explaining what happened and admitting his mistake, Larson’s spotter tweeted:

“Today I made a mistake. I will take full responsibility for what happen on track today. I was worried more about the 22 and not the 9. It was a late call on me it had nothing to do with Kyle.”

Several laps later, Larson extended his lead. In the final 10 laps, Elliot spun out, bringing in caution. At the start/finish line, Larson went on to win the race, with his team-mate finishing 26th.

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Kyle Larson explains crash with Chase Elliott at Auto Club Speedway

After the race, Kyle Larson said that he didn’t know Chase Elliot was on his outside. He claimed that he would never be that aggressive against a team-mate. Addressing the clash with Elliott, Larson said:

“I had a run so I went to peel off and as soon as I peeled off, my spotter’s yelling, ‘Outside, outside, outside.’ And I had no clue [Elliott] was even coming. I mean just an honest mistake on probably both of our faults. I should have had more awareness in my mirror, my spotter could have told me he was coming with a big run and we would’ve avoided that mess.”

Larson admitted that he hated the way it happened and went on to add, saying:

“I know that they’re upset, but we’ll talk and hopefully we’ll get on the same page, I would never run into my teammate or block him that aggressively and that late on purpose.”

On Sunday, Larson claimed his first win of the 2022 season with the WISE Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway. In achieving this feat, the 29-year-old took his career win tally to 17.