Tyler Erb talks the thrilling Summer Nationals event where he was crashed by his friend, Kyle Bronson
On Tuesday, the DIRTcar Summer Nationals ventured to Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. The 3/8-mile dirt track near St. Louis engaged the crowd with a thriller of a dirt late model event.
Tyler Erb threw a silder on Kyle Bronson for the race lead. He clipped Bronson in the left front with his right rear as he went by to take the lead.
On the final lap, Bronson made up a half straight away on Tyler Erb. He just nailed the bottom and hit it perfect.
That put Bronson on the rear bumper of Erb as they went down the back stretch and into turn three for the final time. Bronson drove it deep on the bottom but he didn’t hold it there.
It was a near identical incident from earlier in the race, in reverse. Bronson tagged Erb with his right rear as he went by. He leaned on him and pushed Erb off his line.
The drivers were racing for the $10,000 victory off the final corner. Erb didn’t lift. However, he climbed the wall and spun as Bronson went on to take the win.
Bronson wasn’t expecting to put Erb on top of the fence. He was just trying to lean on him and put him in a bad spot off the final corner so he could get the race win. It worked out for him. But…
Tyler Erb after Tri-City Speedway
After the win, Tyler Erb gave one of the best interviews of all time. He was vocal to Dirt on Dirt, “I got flat out [expletive] wrecked.”
“I don’t think he did it on purpose. I like Kyle. But, I just got killed for $7,500. I went from making some money this week to eatin’ Romen.”
“Our [expletive]’s wiped out right now. That’s fine. We’re going to race again tomorrow. Kyle, I like you. If we race again, I’m going to [expletive] wipe you the [expletive] out for $1,000 or $10,000.”
“I’m not mad at Kyle. I’m mad right now, absolutely. But, I’m not about the crying between this guy and that guy.”
Tyler Erb and Kyle Bronson each run on the national Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series schedule. Thus, they spend countless weeks together at the same race track throughout the dirt racing season.
And at a lot of those races tracks, these two are out in the fields, parked next to each other. Each of them tend to park away from the other group of haulers on a lot of nights.
Tyler Erb on the conversation with Kyle Bronson
Aren’t you and Kyle Bronson friends?
“Yeah,” Tyler Erb told RacingNews.co ahead of the LOLMDS race that followed the event at Tri-City.
So, have you guys talked since the deal at Tri-City Speedway?
“He called me the next day.”
How’d that conversation go?
“He’s like, ‘I’m sorry.’ “
“I said, ‘It’s not a big deal.’ And it really isn’t. Like I said, he wanted to win more than I did.”
“It’s not a big deal. I probably would have tried to do the same thing. It would have ended up good for me.”
I’m assuming you’ve seen the video clip. Has your opinion of it changed at all since seeing it all from that angle?
“No, not really.”
“Like with the first one, I threw a slider on him and it was kinda dirty. Then, he did the same thing to me. I didn’t lift and I climbed the fence. It didn’t work out.”
“You could lift, you could stay in the gas. There’s nothing you can do. I wanted to win on the last lap. I figured my best way to win was to stay in the gas running the same line I did.”
Looking back you would have done the same thing?
“No. Obviously, I would have tried something else. If I knew the outcome.”
“Maybe I needed to lift and try to turn underneath him. But, that’s not the way racing works. If it played out like that everybody would want to do things over again.”
“But you can’t. You just take it an move on. We race tonight, we race tomorrow. We race next week, four times.” [Tyler Erb said ahead of the Lucas race at Tazewell.]
“It’s not like it’s the end of the world. It’s not like we race once a month and we have to sit here and stew about it and be pissed off.”
Just on to the next one.
“Yeah. It literally is. Racing is a lot more discipline than it is success. You can’t be bent because of one night of disappointment.”
“If a guy won every single night in racing, it wouldn’t be fun. You fail more than you succeed. I don’t know a guy that’s won more races than he’s lost.”
“I’m not saying that you get used to it or that you want to lose. 90% of the time, it’s not the best outcome or what you want to happen which is to win.”
“It was a good night. We were fast. We won out heat. Raced for the win the whole night. We just didn’t take the checkered.”
“It’s part of racing. I would take a lose there to win one down the road. Say the world took that one from me. If I can get another win down the road, somewhere else, it will be fine.”
Tyler Erb vs Kyle Bronson Video
Tri-City Speedway
June 25, 2019
Links
Tyler Erb | Kyle Bronson | Tri-City Speedway | DIRTcar Summer Nationals | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
