NASCAR Cup Series

Kyle Larson survives scare after running into Landon Cassill

Published Apr. 19, 2015 9:41 p.m. ET

foxsports

Sophomore driver Kyle Larson used a bit of pit strategy to grab the race lead just past the 345-lap mark of Sunday's Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer at Bristol Motor Speedway, but he had a big scare just a handful of laps later.

Maintaining a large lead over the rest of the field, Larson was working behind lapped traffic when he made contact with Landon Cassill to bring out the caution on Lap 367.

The incident occurred when Cassill was forced to check up behind the damaged car of Jeb Burton, who was running in the middle groove on the straightaway. With a huge run off the corner, Larson got into the back of Cassill's No. 40 Chevrolet and sent him hard into the outside wall nearly head-on into the SAFER barrier.

Larson was able to escape any damage from the contact, and Cassill was able to walk away from the hard hit.

After walking from the infield care center, Cassill took blame and said he hoped it did not cause any damage to the leader's car.

"I just came down on the 42," said Cassill. "I just didn't know how close the 42 was to me and I thought I was able to get down and then all the sudden my spotter told me there was a car down to the inside."