Two of the foundational pillars of NASCAR are hard-nosed racing and rivalries. Sunday’s finish between Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson at Chicagoland Speedway showed that those two principles don’t have to overlap.
Petty vs. Pearson, Yarborough vs. Allison(s), Earnhardt vs. Wallace. All brushed fenders in the spirit of fevered competition, often with an intensity that caused tempers to boil. Busch vs. Larson? The on-track fervor is there, as illustrated by their trade of multiple scrapes over the final lap, with Busch landing the final blow and the win. But any signs of personal fury or frayed emotion seemed to be awash in a more magnanimous sentiment.
Respect.
So it was that Larson pulled alongside Busch’s car on the cool-down lap for a knowing acknowledgement instead of a sideswipe. Larson’s signal from the driver’s-side window to his would-be rival was a thumbs-up instead of the finger just two digits over. And after the engines had silenced, Larson’s face-to-face meeting with Busch in Victory Lane was sealed by a handshake and not a right cross.
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“I do appreciate him coming over and saying something about it and being receptive to what all went down,” Busch said after posting his fifth win of 2018. “If I was in his shoes, I don’t know what I would have done differently.”
Folks often clamor for competition with more of an edge, reinforcing the notion that stock-car racing is — and will forever be — a full-contact sport. Sunday’s fine finish brought that concept back to the forefront, providing a highlight-reel package of give and take — with a few more takes than gives sprinkled in over the final mile and a half.
But Larson remained matter of fact in sizing up the whole episode, saying simply that he bumped Busch, and Busch bumped back. Hard racing. No hard feelings.
“I just went down and talked to him and said that was a lot of fun,” Larson said of his post-race visit to Victory Lane. “I have a lot of respect for Kyle Busch. He has a lot of respect for me. Yeah, I mean, like I said, that was hard racing. I had a lot of fun.”
Busch persists as one of NASCAR’s most vibrant pot-stirrers, egging on the Chicagoland boo-birds after emerging from his battered, winning car. And Larson remains one of the sport’s brightest new talents, able to match the masterful Busch move for move down the stretch with a dash of dirt-track wisdom applied to the asphalt discipline.
All the ingredients were present on the chef’s table for a post-race blow-up. That recipe never quite blended, at least partly because of Busch’s and Larson’s mutual understanding of the last-lap rules of engagement — that, and a healthy dose of shared respect.
Good, hard racing without the rivalry? Two of the best showed us Sunday how that’s done.
