{"id":130119,"date":"2025-09-09T01:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130119\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T01:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:48:06","slug":"richard-petty-weighs-in-on-kyle-larsons-controversial-playoff-clash-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130119\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Petty weighs in on Kyle Larson\u2019s controversial Playoff clash – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> champion Richard \u201cThe King\u201d Petty has given his two cents on Kyle Larson<\/a>\u2019s controversial contact with Ryan Blaney<\/a> in Sunday\u2019s Round of 16 race at World Wide Technology Raceway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Enjoy Illinois 300, which wound up being won by Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin<\/a>, saw Larson in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet tag Blaney in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford in the rear left as they approached the main straightaway with just seven to go in the second stage, in the battle for fifth.<\/p>\n

The contact sent Blaney spinning<\/a>, bringing out the caution as Larson went on to finish the stage in fourth, while his rival crossed the line in 18th. After the race, Blaney waited patiently for Larson to be done talking to reporters in the pit road, allowing them to work through what happened then and there.<\/p>\n

While Blaney clearly opted for the diplomatic resolution, it seems the Pettys may have handled it slightly differently in Richard\u2019s heyday. Appearing on the latest episode of the \u2018Petty Race Recap<\/a>,\u2019 the winningest driver in Cup Series history said how he responded to the incident would have changed depending on the circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re racing for the checkered flag, is one thing,\u201d the 88-year-old said. \u201cIf you\u2019re racing in the middle of the race, it\u2019s a different situation. So, when the race was over, I\u2019d have probably said, \u2018Hey buddy, don\u2019t do that no more. Okay?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, longtime crew chief and Richard\u2019s cousin, Dale Inman, referred to Richard\u2019s finger-pointing during his comment, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t know about the finger in the chest, but he\u2019d have to wait until Maurice (Richard\u2019s brother) got through with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s finger-pointing was reminiscent of a well-known exchange between himself and fellow seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt back at Martinsville in 1980, when the latter was just still a relative newcomer to the Cup Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started fifth or sixth or tenth or somewhere,\u201d Richard recalled during an appearance on the \u2018Dale Jr. Download<\/a>.\u2019 \u201cYour dad was behind us. We go down the first corner, they throw the green flag. We go down the first corner, I\u2019m turning here, here comes a car across the grass, lands on my hood. Who is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n

Naturally, it was a young Earnhardt. Richard then added that he headed over to Earnhardt, pointing his finger into his chest, telling him, \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t let that happen again.\u2019 I gave him one of those finger [pointing] deals. And that\u2019s the first time I remember Dale Earnhardt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, no such exchange took place on Sunday, although it’s safe to say that Blaney was still frustrated with Larson even after the Hendrick star took the blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just said he made a mistake. And that’s fine, make mistakes, but at the end of the day, I still got turned,\u201d Blaney told USA. \u201cHe came all the way from the bottom of the racetrack and hit me in my left rear. I know he most likely didn\u2019t mean to do it, but it happened anyway, so that’s just one I\u2019ve got to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard \u201cThe King\u201d Petty has given his two cents on Kyle Larson\u2019s controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,4386,2332,634,71217,25834,15224,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-130119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-kyle-larson","11":"tag-motorsport-section","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-nascar-playoff-controversy","14":"tag-richard-petty","15":"tag-ryan-blaney","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}