Kyle Larson dominates, four drivers eliminated from NASCAR playoffs
Kyle Larson smoked the field and conquered the concrete, high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night in dominant fashion, leading 462 of 500 laps to win the NASCAR Cup Series’ Bass Pro Shops Night Race in Bristol, Tennessee.
In the final of the three Round of 16 races, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver started second but ran one spot better for most of the night around the half-mile bullring in the Tennessee mountains.
Larson recorded his fifth win of 2024 by beating teammate Chase Elliott by 7.088 seconds in the most dominant showing in a points race so far.
Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell completed the top five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain.
Title hopes came to an end as the round trimmed out the bottom quartet of drivers.
Not advancing to the Round of 12 next Sunday at Kansas Speedway were Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton.
Denny Hamlin, who was below the cut line before the season’s 29th race, advanced above the cutoff, essentially swapping places with Gibbs, who was safely in before the 500-lap event.
Truex’s elimination put an end to any hope of him winning in his final season of full-time competition in the series.
Larson showed his strength early in Stage 1’s 125 laps, passing polesitter Bowman and putting championship contender Keselowski a lap down in the late portion of the segment.
The No. 5 Chevrolet stayed out front and Larson claimed his 11th stage win this season. Bowman and Bell followed in second and third, respectively.
Larson, the 2021 Cup champion, was dominant again in the second stage and made it a dozen segment wins by topping Truex and Hamlin.
In the race’s second half at Lap 329, Josh Berry’s No. 4 Ford turned the No. 7 Chevrolet of Corey LaJoie into the backstretch wall to bunch up the field with Larson and Hamlin up front.
Playoff implications arose on the ensuing pit stops as Truex was nailed for speeding on pit road and restarted back in the mid-20s. He never recovered, finishing 24th and failing to advance.