MARTINSVILLE, Va. — For most drivers, the post-race routine — if it doesn’t include talking to the media — is getting into a vehicle and heading back to Charlotte via land vehicle or airplane and nothing more. For race winner Kyle Larson, however, his post-race departure involved a collision.
He was heading to the airport when a driver ran a red light and hit him. He believes the person who hit him was one of the traffic coordinators.
“I don’t think he realized that they picked the cones up from the side where we were coming from,” Larson said. “I don’t think he expected anybody to be coming from where we were and he just darted out in the intersection.”
Larson made contact with him in his right-front, but was able to veer slightly before contact. So, as he put it, “it honestly didn’t even hurt that bad, or at all, really.”
“Our Chevy Suburban was good. The hood was buckled and the left front was messed up. The tow was out of it quite a bit,” Larson added. “But, that guys truck, the right front was not a part of it anymore. So, it is a funny story. Just the irony of it, I guess, having a near perfect weekend and a quarter-mile from the track to get in a car accident.”
Asked if the person who hit him knew who he was, Larson said he didn’t “think he did. But, once the cops showed up, I think he realized who I was. And it was pretty funny.” He was asked if the cops realized who he was, he said “Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that was cool. They were quick about it, too.”
