Kyle Larson's fiery radio outburst during the Iowa Corn 350 came after he made contact with Chase Elliott twice. Kevin Harvick has suggested that maybe it came from something even deeper behind the scenes at Hendrick Motorsports.It started just past the halfway mark at Iowa Speedway, in the second stage of what turned into a chaotic, caution-heavy race. On restart, Hendrick teammates Larson and Elliott found themselves going three-wide. With no stage points or playoff positions on the line at that moment, the move felt unnecessarily aggressive. Contact followed twice in the next 20 laps.With 114 laps to go, Elliott threw his No. 9 Chevy into the middle lane, squeezing the No. 5 of Larson and slamming hard door-to-door. Larson nearly lost the car but held on in a moment of pure car control. It sent Larson over the edge on the radio, as he said:"How much fu***** room do I have to leave people?... Been quiet for 45 minutes. Fu**, man... I know I've been trying to be a good teammate, I've been trying a good competitor, and it hasn't gotten me anywhere in the last fu***** hour."Fast forward to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast this week, and the 2014 Cup champion didn't hold back when reflecting on Larson's reaction:"It was with Chase Elliott this weekend. And that's what led to the blowup on the radio. But there's obviously been a conversation that's happened either within the organization or Kyle with himself or Kyle and Cliff (Daniels) or however this whole conversation about being a good competitor and being a good teammate and all those things that came to that rant on the radio. And I don’t like that for Kyle Larson." (24:40 onwards)Harvick’s point wasn't just about the contact. It was about the fact that Kyle Larson was letting it affect his mental space mid-race.Running in the top five, Larson dropped through the field after the contact and never recovered. Later in the final stage, more contact with Christopher Bell and then Ty Dillon pushed him further back. By the checkered flag, Larson limped home in 28th place - his second finish of 28th or worse in four races. Harvick said:"I want Kyle Larson to be doing slide jobs and not worrying about what kind of competitor he is. I think you always have to worry about what kind of teammate you are, but I think it's better to worry about it after it's already done… that is not productive in my mind for Kyle Larson to be thinking about stuff like that." (25:05 onwards)And it wasn't just Larson whose day got derailed.Hendrick Motorsports had all four cars in contention midway through the race. William Byron eventually won, but Chase Elliott finished 14th and Alex Bowman came home seventh. Nevertheless, HMS holds the top three spots in the regular-season standings. Byron leads the way, 18 points up on Elliott. Larson is third, 45 behind.Kyle Larson's slump and a Watkins Glen lifelineNASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson after qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway. Source: ImagnKyle Larson has been fast. But since running the grueling Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 double failure in May, the results haven't followed. He won three races before that double-duty weekend and looked capable of winning many more.However, since then, the No. 5 team has struggled to string together full, clean races. His runner-up finish at the Brickyard 400 was the only time he was close to winning another race in over three months. He controlled long stretches, executed clean pit stops, and challenged eventual winner Bubba Wallace right to the end. But in Iowa, it was back to frustration.With just three races remaining in the regular season, Watkins Glen could be the bounce-back point. Larson has won twice at The Glen (2021 and 2022) and has five top-10s in 10 career starts there. He's also in a relatively comfortable spot.Thanks to his three wins earlier in the season, Larson is the projected second seed heading into the Cup Series playoffs, despite sitting third in the regular-season standings. The points gap to Byron is not insurmountable. The #5 team needs a clean weekend.