LARSON’S BRISTOL BRILLIANCE, SVG STRUGGLES
The Bristol Motor Speedway is a happy hunting ground for Kyle Larson, with the Hendricks driver proving to be an overwhelming force across the weekend in Tennessee.
The ninth round of the NASCAR Cup Series proved to still be a year of repeat winners, as Larson also denied Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin a third straight, which would have been the second such occasion of the year.
The #5 Chevrolet topped the #11 Toyota by 2.250 seconds in the end, but the telling stat was the 411 of the 500 laps on the high banked 0.8 km short track that Larson led throughout the day.
He not only powered to his 31st career win and second of the season, but he also dominated the XFinity outing on the Saturday prior to his second straight NASCAR win on the Bristol track.
And for the second time this season, Larson also fell just short on the triple, after finishing second in the Truck Series race.
Taking third place was Hamlin’s teammate Ty Gibbs, with a full +6.679 of daylight between him the leader, with the race also running green for the final 235 laps. And contrary to what the tyre degradation looked like it was going to provide after qualifying, the track also rubbered in well with the long run becoming prominent, with Ryan Blaney for example pulling a race high of 175 laps on the one set.
For Larson, the win also carried double emotion after losing his close friend and PR rep Jon Gordon during the week.
“This one’s definitely for Jon, He’s just a great guy,” Larson said.
“Successful weekend here, I just wish he was going to be here with us to celebrate, but I know he’s celebrating with us in spirit.
“Just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team. Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun.
“However many laps of green we ran there was a lot of fun, I was pretty comfortable with things, and then Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle and kind of kept the pressure on from there.”
Hamlin was never really a threat to challenge however, despite getting to one second in arrears after the final pit stop, with Larson also having a slight brush with the wall at one stage.
The Californian also marked another career high with his sweep of the stages, with his second and 66th stage win drawing him level on all-time stage wins with Martin Truex Jr (stage racing was introduced in 2017).
As for Hamlin, who was looking to emulate Christopher Bell as 2025 three-peater, he took his hat off to Larson, as well as paying tribute to the other members of the NASCAR family that passed during the week.
“You have to give that team their due, just a dominant performance,” Hamlin said.
“It looked like a pretty flawless day for them. It looked pretty easy, I just had to try and keep up there. I’m glad we were able to give him a little bit of a run with our Progressive Toyota.
“But this weekend, we are all thinking about Jon Edwards’ family, (racing journalist) Al Pearce, and (team owner) Shige Hattori. We’ve lost a lot of great people in our sport over the last week, so our thoughts are with them.”
“Wish we could have got one more spot, but I just wanted to keep him honest there at the end. That was all I was trying to do, but he was a little too much to handle.”
It was a tough weekend for Shane van Gisbergen.
After qualifying 39th, van Gisbergen was racing for 35th when a collision with Cody Ware sent the Kiwi into a race-ending spin.
“That was a tough day on a tough track for our Safety Culture Chevrolet. Unfortunately, there was a lot of damage and we couldn’t make a lot of laps afterwards,” SVG said.
Next up for NASCAR following a scheduled week off is a return to the Superspeedways, as Talladega gets its first run of the season, with Texas, Kansas, and North Wilkesboro to follow.
Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE
Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine
