NASCAR News: Larson doubles up at Bristol, schooling everyone

After winning Saturday’s Xfinity race, Kyle Larson showed his muscle at Bristol Motor Speedway, sweeping the stages and taking the checkered flag at the Tennessee half-mile’s Food City 500 NASCAR Cup race.

Kyle Larson completed a memorable and emotional tripleheader weekend with a coronation in the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The 32-year-old Californian led a race-high 411 laps on Sunday and swept both opening stages after starting third. Driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, Larson beat Denny Hamlin to the start-finish line by 2.250 seconds on his way to his second win of the season, third at Bristol and 31st of his career.

“That was a lot of fun,” Larson said. “Just a flawless day for the No. 5 team. It’s good to be back in Victory Lane.”

It was quite the weekend for Larson, who won the SciAps 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday one day after placing second in the WEATHER Guard Truck Race on Friday. Those results took place while the entire Hendrick Motorsports family mourned the passing of longtime public relations chief Jon Edwards, who worked closely with Larson in his final years.

“This one’s for Jon,” Larson said on the radio as he made his way back to the start-finish line to collect the checkered flag. “He’s just a great guy and we’re going to miss him. I know he’s celebrating with us in spirit.”

Hamlin was one spot short in his bid for a third consecutive Cup Series victory. Ty Gibbs finished third, followed by Chase Briscoe in fourth and Ryan Blaney in fifth.

“It was all I had to try to keep up there,” Hamlin said. “You have to give that team and Kyle their due. It was a dominant performance. He was just too much to handle.

“It’s been a great run [for our team] over the last month. We just have to continue this momentum.”

The Food City 500 concluded The Last Great Colosseum’s NASCAR tripleheader weekend, which marked the first time Bristol hosted all three NASCAR national touring series in the spring.

Feared tire issues didn’t materialize on a sunny afternoon that was by far the warmest of the BMS weekend. While early laps were driven around 116 mph, by the time Larson led by more than one second speeds were closer to 120 mph per circuit.

“We were just kind of riding in line,” Larson said. “I was just keeping an eye on the track and it looked like rubber was laying down. I just went to the lead and it turned into a normal Bristol track for us.”

“You couldn’t go hard [early] and risk that it would all fall apart,” added Briscoe. “Around lap 50 or 60 everyone started running hard.”

Larson was forced to relinquish the lead in a series of green flag pit stops during the third stage, which went caution free. By the time everyone cycled around, Larson was more than one second clear of Hamlin and had to navigate lapped traffic cleanly in order to secure the win.

“We try to improve our process each week,” said Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief. “[Larson] had a lot of pressure moments in traffic and the pressure from Denny. You could see our maturity as a team. It was nice to bring it on home.”

Contrary to strong indications from Saturday’s practice, Bristol’s concrete surface rubbered in, and tire wear was not the factor that most teams and drivers anticipated. Blaney, for instance, ran 175 laps on one set of tires before pitting on Lap 440.

Pole winner Alex Bowman led the first 39 laps before Larson grabbed the top spot for the first time. Larson went to win the first stage over Hamlin and the second over Bowman, who later fell out of the race when his engine expired.

The Stage 2 victory was the 66th of Larson’s career, tying him with Martin Truex Jr. for the most since stage racing was introduced in 2017.

William Byron charged forward to a sixth-place finish after starting 26th. Ross Chastain ran seventh, followed by Christopher Bell and AJ Allmendinger, the last driver on the lead lap. Austin Dillon was 10th, the first driver one lap down.

Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano placed 24th. Josh Berry, from Hendersonville, Tenn., finished 12th while NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Jesse Love finished 31st in his Cup Series debut.

Larson completed the 500 laps around the .533-mile concrete oval in 2 hours, 38 minutes, 43 seconds with an average speed of 100.746 mph. Three caution periods took up 40 laps, with eight drivers finishing on the lead lap.

Busch Light Pole Award winner Alex Bowman saw his race go sour in the final stage, with the engine on his No. 48 Chevrolet expiring while running in third place.

Kyle Larson, what a dominant performance. You won two of the three races this weekend, but I just heard you say on the radio, We did this one for John. What did John mean to you, Kyle?

KYLE LARSON: This one is definitely for John. He is just a great guy here, so we’re going to miss him, but successful weekend here. Wish he was going to be here with us to celebrate, but I know he’s celebrating with us in spirit.

Yeah, just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team. Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun. You know, however many laps of green we ran, there was a lot of fun. I was pretty comfortable with things. Then Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle, and then, yeah, just kind of kept the pressure on from there.

I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic. Felt like I did a pretty good job there in traffic. Split the middle sometimes when I needed to. So, yeah, just a lot of fun. A little bit out of breath. Just so high-paced here, and heart rate is up.

So really cool. Thanks to Hendrickcars.com, Chevy, Prime, Valvoline, this whole team. You know, the pit crew, this is their first win with the 5 team. It’s going to be fun celebrating with them.

Yeah, good to be back at victory lane.

Cliff Daniels, your crew chief, told me we’re going to have to play in the moment. We don’t know what to expect today. Kyle, this is not the race we all expected. From your perspective, I mean, at what point did you realize, this is not going to be a tire conservation race?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don’t know. Early on, yeah, we were all kind of just riding in line like we did in the spring last year, and I was just trying to keep an eye on the track.

I felt like, you know, it was starting to get a little bit darker on exit, so I was, like, All right, that means some rubber is laying down. Then people kind of got the middle working. Then we get back down. I was like, Screw it, I’m just going to go to the lead here and pick the pace up and maybe the pace will help lay the rubber down even more.

It did, and it turned into a normal Bristol track there for us. So really played in our favor. Obviously having track position helps a lot.

You know, if Denny is in front of me, it could be a totally different story and be really hard to pass him, but glad to stop his three-peat. We hate to see him win, as I’m sure you guys do too. It’s just good to be back here at victory lane.

Race Results