Kyle Larson flips at Talladega Superspeedway; NASCAR to investigate (Video)

Kyle Larson rolled several times on the final lap at Talladega Superspeedway

Coming to the white flag lap at Talladega Superspeedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr spun across the start finish line due to a possible mechanical failure. He made contact with the outside wall and slid to the apron just before turn one.

Stenhouse made no contact with other cars as the field drove by on the inside. However, he came to a stop well beyond the start finish line.

No caution was thrown for the Stenhouse crash. The last lap was on…

Toward the back of the field, David Ragan suffered a huge push off turn two as the car didn’t turn. He ran wide and clipped William Byron on his outside. With the contact to his left rear, Byron was sent toward the infield, across traffic.

Larson started to turn to the left as Byron came across the track. He made contact with the right rear and Larson was sent to the apron of the backstretch.

The right rear wheel of the #42 started to lift off the ground almost immediately. Once air got under the car, it only pushed the car higher into the air.

Kyle Larson was completely off the ground and heading for the inside wall at near 200mph. As he hit the wall, the car began to barrel roll. The car went end over end at least three times.

As Larson slid across the track, the caution came out. Chase Elliott was declared the race winner and the final half lap was completed under caution.

NASCAR stated the caution was for frontstretch debris from Stenhouse’s car. However, the race report listed the backstretch crash as the cause of the caution.

Kyle Larson crash at Talladega Superspeedway
Kyle Larson crash at Talladega Speedway (Photo: Torey Fox | NASCAR Digital Media)

NASCAR will investigate the crash at Talladega Superspeedway

NASCAR will investigate the crash and everything that led up to it. The sanction isn’t fond of cars getting upside down and reviews of similar accidents aren’t uncommon.

In any major crash, NASCAR always investigates the cars themselves. Due to their relentless efforts of crash investigating, cars don’t get upside very often.

New in recent years, cars are fitted with high speed in-car cameras which give NASCAR an idea of ways to make the cockpit area safer in the event of a crash.

Previously, cars were fitted with rear wings. That was an era of the sport that saw many flips. With the wings long removed, the sport has seen far less blowover and rollover crashes.

Roof flaps and hood flaps are designed to deploy when a car gets spun sideways or backwards. The flaps act in the reverse of a wing to push the car back to the ground.

The rear spoiler was increased to 9 inches for this years event at Talladega Superspeedway. That’s 6.625 inches more than it was for the same race last year. It’s unclear if that had anything to do with the liftoff of the car.


Kyle Larson on the crash at Talladega Superspeedway

“Initially, I just thought I was going to hit the inside wall pretty hard,” Kyle Larson told FOX Sports after leaving the infield care center.

“Right before I got to it, I felt it lift. I was hoping it was sit down. Then, it just started tumbling.”

“That was probably the longest flip I’ve ever had. I didn’t know if it would ever stop.”

“I knew I was flipping. Just hoping I wasn’t getting any closer to the catch fence. It was a little bit scary but thankfully, I’m alright.”

“Thanks to the fab shop at Chip Ganassi Racing for building safe race cars.

“I thought I could have a shot to win there. But, it just didn’t work out. As soon as we left the restart zone, we were in a bad spot.”

“Then, I was in the back. When you’re like that and everybody’s 4-5 wide, you know something crazy’s going to happen.”

“I just wish we would have been on the right end of it for once this year,” Larson concluded.

Kyle Larson flip video
Talladega Superspeedway

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