September 21, 2024 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Larson dominates Bristol night race

BRISTOL, Tenn. — It was a story of absolute domination on the part of Kyle Larson, who led 462 of 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway and won Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race by 7.088 seconds over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott.

Larson’s advance to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs was hardly in doubt. Still, the vicissitudes of the elimination race were unkind to Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton, who are no longer eligible to compete for the series championship.

Sweeping both stages in front of a massive crowd on a near-perfect night, 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.

The victory was Larson’s second at the 0.533-mile track, his series-best fifth of the 2024 season and the 28th of the career. He enters the Round of 12 as the top seed as the series moves on to Kansas Speedway.

“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.

“We dominate a lot of races, but we might not close them all out, so it feels really good to close one out here in this HendrickCars.com Chevy. We’ve got (team owner) Rick Hendrick here today, too. He hasn’t been to many races this year…

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

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, however, Gibbs had worn out his right-rear tire, finished 15th and lost the final Round of 12 position to Daniel Suárez and Chase Briscoe by 11 points.

“Speeding penalty is on me,” Gibbs said. “You run the lights so close … it’s my fault. Unfortunate.”

Entering the race 14 points below the elimination line, Truex ran fourth in the first stage and second in Stage 2, but the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing 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.

“I’m just gutted for my 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. I don’t know if we could have run second … maybe. We were close to it all day, but in the end, it doesn’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, who secured spots in the Round of 12.

Hamlin entered the race six points below the elimination line but maintained a presence in the top five all race long.

“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. But overall, I want to thank this whole FedEx Toyota team for giving me something I can move on with.”

The NASCAR Playoff Grid, with the Round of 12 filled in

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.

Larson took charge early, passing Bowman for the lead on Lap 33. Adroitly working traffic as the first 125-lap stage progressed, Larson lapped three playoff drivers in succession–Suarez on Lap 64, Burton on Lap 86 and Keselowski of 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 Stage 2. Suarez lost a second lap to the leader on Lap 194, putting his playoff future in dire peril–temporarily.

Burton suffered the same fate on Lap 207, all but assuring his elimination. His fate was sealed when he took his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to the garage on Lap 235 to repair a power steering issue.

Gibbs’ penalty was the saving grace for Suárez, who finished 31st, four laps down but was able to move on.

“It was a struggle,” Suárez 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, 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.”

Interestingly, the rapid tire fall-off that exerted a profound influence over this year’s spring race at Thunder Valley was a non-factor 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 Cup Series Playoffs kick off the Round of 12 next Sunday at Kansas Speedway in the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage at Bristol concluded without issue, confirming Kyle Larson as the race winner.


NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 29
Race Results for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race - Saturday, September 21, 2024
Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN - 0.533 - Mile Concrete

Total Race Length - 500 Laps - 266.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 9/21/2024 @ 10:26 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 2 5 Kyle Larson (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 500 1 1 60 Running 4 462 7
2 10 9 Chase Elliott (P) LLumar Chevrolet 500 9 10 38 Running  
3 11 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota Genuine Parts/Mobil 1 Toyota 500 10 6 40 Running 1 1
4 8 11 Denny Hamlin (P) FedEx Toyota 500 6 3 46 Running  
5 6 20 Christopher Bell (P) DEWALT Toyota 500 3 5 46 Running  
6 22 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Wurth Ford 500  9 33 Running  
7 14 41 Ryan Preece Old Armor Ford 500   30 Running  
8 5 14 Chase Briscoe (P) Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford 500 7 8 36 Running  
9 1 48 Alex Bowman (P) Ally Chevrolet 500 2 7 41 Running 3 34
10 12 1 Ross Chastain Worldwide Express Chevrolet 500   27 Running  
11 18 34 Michael McDowell Love's Travel Stops Ford 499   26 Running  
12 16 10 Noah Gragson Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford 499   25 Running  
13 27 2 Austin Cindric (P) Menards/Monster Ford 499   24 Running  
14 17 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 499   23 Running  
15 13 54 Ty Gibbs (P) He Gets Us Toyota 499 8  25 Running  
16 33 71 Zane Smith # Ambetter Health Chevrolet 499   21 Running  
17 3 24 William Byron (P) Z HP Chevrolet 499 5  26 Running  
18 7 77 Carson Hocevar # Delaware Life Chevrolet 499   19 Running  
19 21 31 Daniel Hemric Doritos/Mtn Dew by Food City Chevrolet 499   18 Running  
20 15 45 Tyler Reddick (P) McDonald's Toyota 499  4 24 Running 1 3
21 30 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 499   16 Running  
22 26 51 Justin Haley Pinnacle Home Improvement Ford 499   15 Running  
23 19 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) Barger Precast Chevrolet 499   0 Running  
24 4 19 Martin Truex Jr. (P) Bass Pro Shops Toyota 499 4 2 29 Running  
25 29 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 498   12 Running  
26 23 6 Brad Keselowski (P) Castrol Edge Ford 497   11 Running  
27 31 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kroger/Dasani Chevrolet 497   10 Running  
28 20 22 Joey Logano (P) Shell Pennzoil Ford 496   9 Running  
29 25 4 Josh Berry # Bed Bath & Beyond Ford 496   8 Running  
30 32 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 496   7 Running  
31 35 99 Daniel Suarez (P) Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 496   6 Running  
32 24 38 Todd Gilliland Frontline Enterprises Inc Ford 496   5 Running  
33 28 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 491   4 Running  
34 37 66 * Josh Bilicki(i) Arby's Ford 467   0 Running  
35 34 21 Harrison Burton (P) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 422   2 Running  
36 9 7 Corey LaJoie Mattress Warehouse Chevrolet 330   1 Accident  
37 36 15 Kaz Grala # Meat N' Bone Ford 296   1 Steering  

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 37 Mins, 53 Secs. Average Speed: 101.277 MPH Margin of Victory: 7.088 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 48, 20, 19, 24, 11, 14, 54, 9, 23
Stage 2 Top 10: 5, 19, 11, 45, 20, 23, 48, 14, 12, 9

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 5 for 36 laps; Laps: 6-10 (#42 incident turn 4 [None]); 127-135 (Stage 1 Conclusion [31]); 244-248 (#22 incident frontstretch [31]); 252-260 (Stage 2 Conclusion [51]); 330-337 (#7, 4 incident turn 2 [71]).

Lead Changes: 8 among 4 drivers; A. Bowman (P) 1-32; K. Larson (P) 33-129; A. Bowman (P) 130; K. Larson (P) 131-244; A. Bowman (P) 245; T. Reddick (P) 246-248; K. Larson (P) 249-332; B. Wallace 333; K. Larson (P) 334-500.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: September 29, 2024 - Kansas Speedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875



CURRENT NASCAR CUPS SERIES STANDINGS

Bristol Motor Speedway

Bass Pro Shops Night Race

UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 9/21/2024 @ 11:32 PM Eastern UNOFFICIAL

Rank Driver Car Starts GL Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts

1. Kyle Larson (P) 5 28 -8 3047 0 0 5 12 47    WINNER
2. Christopher Bell (P) 20 29 1 3032 -15 15 3 10 32
3. Tyler Reddick (P) 45 29 -3 3028 -19 4 2 3 28
4. William Byron (P) 24 29 -6 3022 -25 6 3 1 22
5. Ryan Blaney (P) 12 29 -3 3019 -28 3 2 4 19
6. Denny Hamlin (P) 11 29 -7 3015 -32 4 3 6 15
7. Chase Elliott (P) 9 29 0 3014 -33 1 1 1 14
8. Joey Logano (P) 22 29 5 3012 -35 2 2 2 12
9. Austin Cindric (P) 2 29 7 3008 -39 4 1 3 8
10. Daniel Suarez (P) 99 29 5 3006 -41 2 1 1 6
11. Alex Bowman (P) 48 29 7 3005 -42 1 1 0 5
12. Chase Briscoe (P) 14 29 1 3005 -42 0 1 0 5


ELIMINATED FROM  PLAYOFFS
13. Ty Gibbs (P) 54 29 1 2074 -973 931 0 2 4
14. Martin Truex Jr. (P) 19 29 -1 2064 -983 10 0 4 4
15. Brad Keselowski (P) 6 29 1 2048 -999 16 1 0 8
16. Harrison Burton (P) 21 29 0 2031 -1016 17 1 0 5