Is Kyle Larson Too Aggressive for His Own Good?

After the race, Larson admitted that he probably could have handled the situation better than he did.

“I guess I could’ve not gone to the middle and been more patient, knowing how fast my car was and knowing who I was [racing] around,” he said. “But I wanted to get as many cars as I could at the beginning of the run, and it probably ended up biting me.”

Don’t get me wrong, the incident wasn’t Larson’s fault at all; Suarez lost control of his car and got into him. But drivers make their own luck, and I feel that Iowa was another example of Larson biting off more than he could chew.

While many accidents are freak … well, accidents, some drivers put themselves more in harm’s way than others. By voluntarily running three-wide in the middle in an effort to pass both, Larson placed his car in a pickle. Most of the time, that move works with no problem. But Larson put himself at greater risk if Suarez was to have a problem, and in this moment, he did.

Larson, along with Ryan Blaney, was the class of the field at Iowa. And as Larson said himself post-race, he was fast enough that he could’ve picked off Keselowski and Suarez one by one in a couple laps had he exercised more patience. But Larson is the driver to take those risks, and while those aggressive moves make him the dominant and flashy driver he is, they also cost him more than his peers.

For another example, Larson was running second behind Blaney at Homestead-Miami Speedway last October. The No. 5 was once again the class of the field, and as the two made their way toward pit road under green for their final service of the day, Larson tried to make up all the time he could on pit entry. So much time that he lost control, crashed into the sand barriers and ended his day on the spot.