NASCAR News: Kyle Larson dominates Bristol Cup Race
Kyle Larson 462 of 500 laps to win the Bass Pro Shops 500-lapper at Bristol Motor Speedway in his No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet
Larson scored his fifth win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season and advanced to the next round of the Cup Series Playoffs.
Sweeping both stages in front of a massive crowd on a near-perfect night, Larson set a record for laps led in a single race by a Hendrick Motorsports driver. He has now led 1,351 laps at Bristol, his most at a single track.
No driver has led as many laps in a victory at Bristol since Cale Yarborough led 495 in 1977.
The victory was Larson’s second at the 0.533-mile track, his series-best fifth of the season and the 28th of the career. He enters the Round of 12 as the top seed, as the series moves to Kansas Speedway for the Sept. 29 Hollywood Casino 400.
“Man, that was just great execution all weekend by the team,” Larson said. “Practiced good. You’ve got to qualify good; we did that. Yeah, just had a great car. Thanks to the whole 5 team. They’re the best in the business.
“We dominate a lot of races, but we might not close them all out, so it feels really good to close one out here in this Hendrickcars.com Chevy. We’ve got (team owner) Rick Hendrick here today, too. He hasn’t been to many races this year…
“Just a phenomenal car, could kind of manage my stuff and then really pass some cars there at the end.”
Unfortunately for Gibbs and Truex, Saturday night’s race also was the story of crippling penalties. Gibbs was flagged for speeding on pit road during the first stage break and spent the rest of the race fighting his way toward the front.
By Lap 500, however, Gibbs had worn out his right rear tire, finished 15th and lost the final Round of 12 position to Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe by 11 points.
“Speeding penalty is on me,” Gibbs said. “You run the lights so close … it’s my fault. Unfortunate.”
Entering the race 14 points below the cut line, Truex ran fourth in the first stage and second in Stage 2, but the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota sped on pit road during the fifth and final caution and finished 24th, 21 points short of advancing to the Round of 12.
“We did good in the first two stages—we got a lot of points,” said Truex, who will retire from full-time Cup racing at the end of the season. “I guess we would have had to run second or third to make it through. Who knows if we would have been able to? I wish we could have seen if we could have done that.
“I’m just gutted for my team. We worked so hard this week. We all put in a lot all season long, and in the last three weeks, just snake-bit. Can’t do anything right … .09 mph (over the pit road speed tolerance) hurts really bad to take the chance away to know if we even could have done it. I don’t know if we could have run second … maybe. We were close to it all day, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. I feel terrible for my guys.”
Non-Playoff driver Bubba Wallace finished third on Saturday night, followed by Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and defending series champion Ryan Blaney, all of whom secured spots in the Round of 12.
Hamlin entered the race six points below the cut line but maintained a presence in the top five all race long. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing machine, who won the last two Bristol races, came up a bit short tonight of adding another Bristol trophy and sword to his collection.
“My aspirations were to win it, but it looked like the 5 (Larson) there was better than all of us,” Hamlin said. “Solid car. I thought we were really good towards the middle of the stages, and then at the end, got too loose and couldn’t hang onto what we had.
“Overall, top-five day, good stage points, kind of in the mix, just not really as good as we’ve been here the last few times. But overall, I want to thank this whole FedEx Toyota team for giving me something I can move on with.”
Ryan Preece ran seventh, trailed by Briscoe and pole winner Alex Bowman, who was locked into the next Playoff round after finishing seventh in Stage 2. Austin Cindric (13th Saturday), William Byron (17th), Tyler Reddick (20th) and Joey Logano (28th) also were among the 12 drivers to advance.
Logano already had secured his spot with a victory in the Playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Larson took charge early, passing Bowman for the lead on Lap 33. Adroitly working traffic as the first 125-lap stage progressed, Larson lapped three Playoff drivers in succession—Suarez on Lap 64, Burton on Lap 86 and Keselowski of Lap 104.
Bowman led a lap under caution during the first stage break, but Larson had the top spot back out of the pits one circuit later and continued to assert his authority in Stage 2. Suarez lost a second lap to the leader on Lap 194, putting his Playoff future in dire peril—temporarily.
Burton suffered the same fate on Lap 207, all but assuring his elimination. His fate was sealed when he took his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to the garage on Lap 235 to repair a power steering issue.
Gibbs’ penalty was the saving grace for Suarez, who finished 31st, four laps down but was able to move on.
“It was a struggle,” Suarez acknowledged. “Since yesterday when we unloaded the car for first practice, we just didn’t have the speed. As you know, with a short amount of practice, qualifying, and going to the race, if you don’t have speed out of the trailer, it’s very, very difficult to bring it back to speed.
“We made it better, but it wasn’t good enough. We were running 30th, 28th, 32nd all night long, and that’s what we had. Luckily, we had a great Atlanta (a runner-up finish), decent Watkins Glen after a broken wheel, and we were able to build a cushion, and we definitely used every single point out of that cushion.”
Interestingly, the rapid tire fall-off that exerted a profound influence over this year’s spring race at Thun
der Valley was a non-factor on Saturday. Before the race, after consultation with the drivers, NASCAR opted to spray PJ1 traction compound on the bottom two feet of the track.
Kyle Larson Quotes
A lifetime memory for the Larson family, as Owen and dad stand on top of the car. What an emphatic statement win for Kyle Larson and the 5 team leading all but 38 laps tonight. He called it “complete domination.” You’ve had a lot of good cars in your career, but is that the best car maybe you’ve ever had?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know, I’ve had a lot of good cars since I’ve come to Hendrick Motorsports. It’s tough to say.
But man, that was just great execution all weekend by the team. Practiced good. You’ve got to qualify good; we did that. Yeah, just had a great car. Thanks to the whole 5 team. They’re the best in the business.
We dominate a lot of races but we might not close them all out, so it feels really good to close one out here in this Hendrickcars.com Chevy. We’ve got Rick Hendrick here today, too. He hasn’t been to many races this year. And Darrell Jackson, he’s our hype man, he’s here, as well.
Just a phenomenal car, could kind of manage my stuff and then really pass some cars there at the end.
I want to put this win in context. Most laps ever led by a Hendrick Motorsports driver in a race, beating drivers like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
KYLE LARSON: That’s pretty cool because, as you mentioned, there’s been some legendary Hall of Famers race for Hendrick Motorsports, and we’ve all grown up watching Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson dominate. Pretty cool to add my name to another record at Hendrick Motorsports, and again, just very fortunate to be with that group, Chevrolet, Jinya Ramen Bar, Prime, everybody involved, Valvoline. It’s so much fun, and especially racing in front of you fans under the lights at Bristol. This is my favorite track, and I hope you guys enjoyed that race there and enjoyed the methodical lap traffic run.
How cool was it to have this moment with Owen for the family?
KYLE LARSON: It’s great. We had a little boys’ weekend here this weekend. Katelyn, hi to you and Audrey and Cooper. We’ll have a long drive home tonight, but we’ll bring some hardware home tonight, too.
Bass Pro Shops Bristol Race Results
| Fin | Str | No. | Driver | Team | Led | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 2 | 5 | Kyle Larson (P) | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 462 | 500 | Running |
| 2 | 10 | 9 | Chase Elliott (P) | LLumar Chevrolet | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 3 | 11 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Toyota Genuine Parts/Mobil 1 Toyota | 1 | 500 | Running |
| 4 | 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (P) | FedEx Toyota | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 5 | 6 | 20 | Christopher Bell (P) | DEWALT Toyota | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 6 | 22 | 12 | Ryan Blaney (P) | Wurth Ford | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 7 | 14 | 41 | Ryan Preece | Old Armor Ford | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 8 | 5 | 14 | Chase Briscoe (P) | Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 9 | 1 | 48 | Alex Bowman (P) | Ally Chevrolet | 34 | 500 | Running |
| 10 | 12 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Worldwide Express Chevrolet | 0 | 500 | Running |
| 11 | 18 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Love’s Travel Stops Ford | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 12 | 16 | 10 | Noah Gragson | Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 13 | 27 | 2 | Austin Cindric (P) | Menards/Monster Ford | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 14 | 17 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fastenal Ford | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 15 | 13 | 54 | Ty Gibbs (P) | He Gets Us Toyota | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 16 | 33 | 71 | Zane Smith # | Ambetter Health Chevrolet | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 17 | 3 | 24 | William Byron (P) | Z HP Chevrolet | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 18 | 7 | 77 | Carson Hocevar # | Delaware Life Chevrolet | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 19 | 21 | 31 | Daniel Hemric | Doritos/Mtn Dew by Food City Chevrolet | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 20 | 15 | 45 | Tyler Reddick (P) | McDonald’s Toyota | 3 | 499 | Running |
| 21 | 30 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 22 | 26 | 51 | Justin Haley | Pinnacle Home Improvement Ford | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 23 | 19 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger(i) | Barger Precast Chevrolet | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 24 | 4 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. (P) | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 0 | 499 | Running |
| 25 | 29 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet | 0 | 498 | Running |
| 26 | 23 | 6 | Brad Keselowski (P) | Castrol Edge Ford | 0 | 497 | Running |
| 27 | 31 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Kroger/Dasani Chevrolet | 0 | 497 | Running |
| 28 | 20 | 22 | Joey Logano (P) | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 0 | 496 | Running |
| 29 | 25 | 4 | Josh Berry # | Bed Bath & Beyond Ford | 0 | 496 | Running |
| 30 | 32 | 43 | Erik Jones | Dollar Tree Toyota | 0 | 496 | Running |
| 31 | 35 | 99 | Daniel Suarez (P) | Freeway Insurance Chevrolet | 0 | 496 | Running |
| 32 | 24 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Frontline Enterprises Inc Ford | 0 | 496 | Running |
| 33 | 28 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota | 0 | 491 | Running |
| 34 | 37 | 66 | * Josh Bilicki(i) | Arby’s Ford | 0 | 467 | Running |
| 35 | 34 | 21 | Harrison Burton (P) | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford | 0 | 422 | Running |
| 36 | 9 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Mattress Warehouse Chevrolet | 0 | 330 | Accident |
| 37 | 36 | 15 | Kaz Grala # | Meat N’ Bone Ford | 0 | 296 | Steering |
Average Speed of Race Winner: 101.277 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 37 Mins, 53 Secs. Margin of Victory: 7.088 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 36 laps.
Lead Changes: 8 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Bowman (P) 1-32;K. Larson (P) 33-129;A. Bowman (P) 130;K. Larson (P) 131-244;A. Bowman (P) 245;T. Reddick (P) 246-248;K. Larson (P) 249-332;B. Wallace 333;K. Larson (P) 334-500.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson (P) 4 times for 462 laps; Alex Bowman (P) 3 times for 34 laps; Tyler Reddick (P) 1 time for 3 laps; Bubba Wallace 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,48,20,19,24,11,14,54,9,23
Stage #2 Top Ten: 5,19,11,45,20,23,48,14,12,9