Kyle Larson Alleges Racial Remark From Shane Liebig after Ryan Timms incident

Kyle Larson and Ryan Timms made contact during the 2026 Front Row Challenge in Oskaloosa at the Iowa Southern Speedway. After the race, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion claimed Liebig Motorsports owner Shane Liebig made comments about his ethnicity.

Larson started the Sprint car A-feature in P11, whereas Timms started in pole position. Larson made his way up the field in the 30-lap feature race and closed in on the race leader with a handful of laps remaining.

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After trying to pass a couple of times, Larson made the definitive move with a lap to go. He went on the inside of Timms’ No. 10 sprint car into Turn 4, and on the exit, clipped his front end. This resulted in a damaged nose wing on Timms’ sprint car.

Speaking with media, including Always Race Day, after the race, Larson claimed that Shane Liebig, owner of Timms’ No. 10 car, was upset.

“His car owner was obviously upset and saying a lot of things, just got my race wrong. I’m Japanese, not Chinese. Hopefully he’ll know that now.”

Larson has Japanese heritage on his mother’s side.

Larson also reflected on the incident and suggested that the contact wasn’t intentional.

“You’re never going in there to make contact with somebody on a half mile. I felt like it was going to be tight, no doubt. But yeah, I mean, once you’re kind of committed, you’re committed. If I bail at all, I’m probably going to hit in the left rear, which is not good, too.”

“I wish I would have made the pass clean and not gotten into his front bumper, front nose wing. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen his nose wing collapse, So I’m guessing he got into my rear bumper. So, yeah, that’s unfortunate,” he added