Kyle Larson dominates Bristol Night Race: NASCAR Playoff field down to 12

You’ve probably heard the story of an old football coach who said to his players that the key to winning was dominating on both sides of the ball and never letting up.

Kyle Larson wasn’t playing football Saturday night in Bristol, but he sure practiced what an old football coach preached and Larson applied to racing, by dominating and never letting up on the field.

In a race of dominance, Larson, who led 462 of 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway, won Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race by 7.088 seconds over fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott.

“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.”

Truth is, he made it look easy while dodging lapped cars and watching the struggle by other drivers to advance into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Video: Kyle Larson advances in NASCAR playoffs

After sweeping both stages, 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.

“Just a phenomenal car, could kind of manage my stuff and then really pass some cars there at the end,” replied Larson.

Larson took charge early, passing Alex Bowman for the lead on Lap 33. As the first stage progressed, Larson lapped three Playoff drivers in succession —Daniel Suarez on Lap 64, Harrison Burton on Lap 86 and Brad Keselowski on 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 the second stage.

While celebrating in Victory Lane was emotional for Larson, there was a sharp contrast in emotions on pit row. There would be no celebration in Bristol from some of the drivers near, at or below the cut line.

The elimination race was unkind to Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton, who have now been eliminated from playoff contention.

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, 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.” Gibbs’ penalty benefitted 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,” added the driver of the 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevy, “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.”

For Martin Truex Jr., he entered the race 14 points below the cut line. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver ran fourth in the first stage and second in Stage 2, but the driver of the No. 19 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.

Truex added that he was “just gutted” for his 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. We were close all day, but in the end, it didn’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 short 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.”

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), 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.

Surprisingly, the rapid tire fall-off that affected much of the field in the spring race was non-existent 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.

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.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Bass Pro Shops Night Race

Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Saturday, September 21, 2024

1. (2) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 500.
2. (10) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 500.
3. (11) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 500.
4. (8) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 500.
5. (6) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 500.
6. (22) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 500.
7. (14) Ryan Preece, Ford, 500.
8. (5) Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, 500.
9. (1) Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, 500.
10. (12) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 500.
11. (18) Michael McDowell, Ford, 499.
12. (16) Noah Gragson, Ford, 499.
13. (27) Austin Cindric (P), Ford, 499.
14. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 499.
15. (13) Ty Gibbs (P), Toyota, 499.
16. (33) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 499.
17. (3) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 499.
18. (7) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 499.
19. (21) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 499.
20. (15) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 499.
21. (30) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 499.
22. (26) Justin Haley, Ford, 499.
23. (19) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 499.
24. (4) Martin Truex Jr. (P), Toyota, 499.
25. (29) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 498.
26. (23) Brad Keselowski (P), Ford, 497.
27. (31) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 497.
28. (20) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 496.
29. (25) Josh Berry #, Ford, 496.
30. (32) Erik Jones, Toyota, 496.
31. (35) Daniel Suarez (P), Chevrolet, 496.
32. (24) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 496.
33. (28) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 491.
34. (37) Josh Bilicki(i), Ford, 467.
35. (34) Harrison Burton (P), Ford, 422.
36. (9) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, Accident, 330.
37. (36) Kaz Grala #, Ford, Steering, 296.

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.