Kyle Larson Set A Record In Dominant Bristol NASCAR Cup Series Win
Kyle Larson started the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in second, but was second to no one throughout the race.
Larson passed his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman on lap 33 of the 500-lap race and went on to sweep all the stages and lead 462 laps on his way to a dominant victory that saw him lap all but the top 10 drivers at the end.
Larson was already heading to the second round of the playoffs, but the win put an exclamation point on it.
The race didn’t see the same sort of dramatic tire fall-off as the spring race at Bristol and there were only eight lead changes compared to 54, but Larson said he prefers it that way.
“I was happy, for sure, because I know you guys probably think that the race in the spring was better, but as a driver I would way rather run 100% all night long for 500 laps than run 50%,” Larson said. “I don’t think that’s much of a race.”
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Larson led the most laps at Bristol since Cale Yarborough’s 495 at the spring race in 1977. Yarborough also led all 500 laps in the spring race in 1973, but Larson still set one record with his performance this year.
His 462 laps led was the most ever by a Hendrick Motorsports driver in any NASCAR race since the team was founded 40 years ago.
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Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. both had their playoff runs ended by speeding penalties, while Harrison Burton and Brad Keselowski also failed to advance to the round of 12.
Here are the full playoffs standings heading into the next race at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 19:
- Kyle Larson +39
- Christopher Bell +24
- Tyler Reddick +20
- William Byron +14
- Ryan Blaney +11
- Denny Hamlin +7
- Chase Elliott +6
- Joey Logano +4
- Austin Cindric -4
- Daniel Suarez -6
- Alex Bowman -7
- Chase Briscoe -7