LONG POND, Pa. – Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson will both be switching to backup cars after both drivers crashed in the opening Gander RV 400 practice Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
Larson smacked the outside wall coming out of turn two and then spun, making contact with the inside wall second later. It’s the second-straight week Larson has been forced to a backup car after crashing in practice.
“I’m just disappointed in myself. That’s two weeks in a row now,” Larson said. “I hate that I did that. I just got really loose, over-corrected some, spun to the inside and hit the wall. I just hate that I did that. We only have today for practice and I didn’t have much time in that practice session. Hopefully we can get some laps in the backup car. I was happy last week with the efforts to get the backup ready and the outcome in the race as well. Hopefully we can do it again today, but I’m just mad at myself.”
It wasn’t long before Larson had company in the Pocono Raceway garage area. Elliott slammed the wall coming out of turn one, damaging the right side of his Chevrolet Camaro enough that his team unloaded the backup car.
“I just made a mistake and crashed,” Elliott admitted. “I put myself in a pretty poor situation there in practice. I apologize to my guys here and the people back at the shop. It was just stupid. That’s what you get when you make those mistakes.”