Following his win Sunday (March 3) in the Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube, Kyle Larson invited his kids to celebrate the win with him during his frontstretch interview.
In the few short minutes he was out of the car, astute viewers noted that his son had jumped on the roof of the car, removed the side window, and was pulling on the corner of the spoiler. Sure, it was a charming moment (and what harm could a 50-pound kid cause?), but it did create some discussion social channels, and got us to thinking as well. Should NASCAR exercise some control over who’s crawling around the winning car prior to post-race inspection?
This week, Vito Pugliese and Amy Henderson tug at the implications and the heartstrings in 2-Headed Monster.
Make a Memory, Not a Big Deal out of Nothing
After Larson won his first race of 2024 last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he shared his finish line victory interview with two special guests: his son Owen and daughter Audrey, who ran out to celebrate their dad’s win. After Larson gave his interview, he piled the children into the car for a ride to victory lane.
Some viewers were quick to point out that during the celebration, Owen was on the roof of the car and grabbed the spoiler as he rounded the car on his way to the celebration. Once the children were in the car, they removed the passenger side window (possibly at Larson’s suggestion), which is mandatory on intermediate tracks. What if the car didn’t pass inspection?
And, predictably, there were the ones who said the youngsters had been instructed to do it to hide something Larson’s team didn’t want NASCAR to see.
Insert eye roll here.
In any case, the car passed post-race inspection and that was that. But what if it hadn’t? Should NASCAR put a stop to kids in or on the car, or any kind of celebration which could alter the shape or ride height before it goes through inspection?
No. Just … no.
NASCAR curbed drivers jumping onto the roof several years ago after someone had an issue with inspection because of it. Victory lane officials even had a little stick with a bar on it they’d stick up to remind the driver not to get up there. Fans hated the curbing of the celebration. They might have understood it, but the rule wasn’t popular. And the stick was straight up silly.
There’s not much organic left in NASCAR these days. Races are manipulated…
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