April 13, 2025 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Larson dominates in emotional NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. — He did it for Jon.

For the second straight day at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Larson dominated a NASCAR race and dedicated the victory to friend and PR representative Jon Edwards, who passed away suddenly during the week leading up to the race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.

On Sunday, Larson won the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race in overwhelming fashion, leading 411 of 500 laps and sweeping both stages.

The victory was Larson’s second of the season, his second straight at the 0.533-mile high-banked short track and the 31st of his career, and it came one day after the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran away with the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Thunder Valley.

“This one’s definitely for Jon,” said Larson, who finished second in Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race, one spot short of sweeping the weekend. “He’s just a great guy. Successful weekend here. 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.”

Larson, who brushed the outside wall at the apex of Turns 1 and 2 with five laps left—without consequence—finished 2.250 seconds in front of Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, who fell one spot short of a third straight Cup victory. Hamlin’s teammate, Ty Gibbs, was 6.679 seconds back in third in a race that ran without caution for the final 235 laps.

“However many laps of green we ran there was a lot of fun,” Larson said. “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.”

After the final pit stops, Hamlin could close within a second of Larson in traffic but never threatened to take the lead.

“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. It was all I had to try to 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, (team owner) Shige Hattori (all of whom passed away within the last eight days). 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.”

Hamlin and Larson have finished 1-2 on seven occasions. Sunday’s race was the first of the seven times Larson has come out on top.

Contrary to strong indications from Saturday’s practice, Bristol’s concrete surface rubbered in, and tire wear was not the factor that most teams and drivers anticipated. Ryan Blaney, for instance, ran 175 laps on one set of tires before pitting on Lap 440.

Chase Briscoe came home fourth, as JGR claimed the three positions behind Larson. Blaney ran long during the final green-flag run, led 48 laps after Larson pitted on Lap 390 for tires and fuel and worked his way back to fifth at the end.

Pole winner Alex Bowman led the first 39 laps before Larson grabbed the top spot for the first time. Larson went to win the first stage over Hamlin and the second over Bowman, who later fell out of the race when his engine expired.

The Stage 2 victory was the 66th of Larson’s career, tying him with Martin Truex Jr for the most since stage racing was introduced in 2017.

William Byron charged forward to a sixth-place finish after starting 26th. Ross Chastain ran seventh, followed by Christopher Bell and AJ Allmendinger, the last driver on the lead lap. Austin Dillon was 10th, the first driver one lap down.



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 9
Race Results for the Food City 500 - Sunday, April 13, 2025
Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN - 0.533 - Mile Concrete
Total Race Length - 500 Laps - 266.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 4/13/2025 @ 05:52 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 3 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 500 1 1 60 Running 2 411 7
2 4 11 Denny Hamlin Progressive Toyota 500 2 5 50 Running  
3 6 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 500 9 7 40 Running  
4 14 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 500  9 35 Running  
5 5 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford 500 7 8 39 Running 1 48
6 26 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 500   31 Running  
7 35 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Flannel Chevrolet 500   30 Running  
8 7 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 500 6 3 42 Running  
9 8 16 AJ Allmendinger Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 499 10  30 Running  
10 17 3 Austin Dillon Get Bioethanol Chevrolet 499   27 Running  
11 9 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet 499 5 4 39 Running 1 2
12 11 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 499   25 Running  
13 10 7 Justin Haley NationsGuard Chevrolet 499 3 6 37 Running  
14 15 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 499   23 Running  
15 20 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 499   22 Running  
16 16 6 Brad Keselowski Kroger/Oscar Mayer/Rustik Ovens Ford 498   21 Running  
17 21 2 Austin Cindric Snap on Ford 498   20 Running  
18 27 45 Tyler Reddick The Beast Toyota 498  10 20 Running  
19 22 23 Bubba Wallace U.S. Air Force Toyota 498   18 Running  
20 29 60 Ryan Preece Boost by Kroger Ford 498   17 Running  
21 32 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 498   16 Running  
22 2 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. SUNNYD Chevrolet 498 8  18 Running  
23 31 4 Noah Gragson Rural King Ford 498   14 Running  
24 38 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 497   13 Running  
25 24 17 Chris Buescher BuildSubmarines.com Ford 497   12 Running  
26 28 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 497   11 Running  
27 18 38 Zane Smith Aaron's Lucky Dog Ford 497   10 Running  
28 25 35 Riley Herbst # Lucy Toyota 496   9 Running  
29 33 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 495   8 Running  
30 13 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 495   7 Running  
31 19 33 * Jesse Love(i) C4 Energy Chevrolet 495   0 Running  
32 12 10 Ty Dillon Okuma Chevrolet 494   5 Running  
33 23 99 Daniel Suarez Choice Privileges Chevrolet 494   4 Running  
34 37 01 * Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Ford 494   3 Running  
35 30 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 493   2 Running  
36 34 51 Cody Ware Arby's Ford 493   1 Running  
37 1 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 343 4 2 17 Engine 1 39
38 36 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # Safety Culture Chevrolet 208   1 Suspension  
39 39 66 * Josh Bilicki(i) Manscaped Ford 193   0 Electrical  

Fastest Lap Bonus:  # lap 396 / 15.38
16                                                                   

Time of Race:  Average Speed: 0 MPH Margin of Victory: 0 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 11, 7, 48, 77, 20, 12, 47, 54, 16
Stage 2 Top 10: 5, 48, 20, 77, 11, 7, 54, 12, 19, 45

Race Comments: Kyle Larson has won the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, his 31st career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reason indicated: Nos. 22 & 42 (unapproved adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 3 for 40 laps; Laps: 127-142 (Stage 1 Conclusion [60]); 179-188 (#51, 88 Incident Turn 2 [60]); 252-265 (Stage 2 Conclusion [60]).

Lead Changes: 4 among 4 drivers; A. Bowman 1-39; K. Larson 40-389; C. Hocevar 390-391; R. Blaney 392-439; K. Larson 440-500.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: April 27, 2025 - Talladega Superspeedway

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



NASCAR Cup Series Points Report
Bristol Motor Speedway
Food City 500

UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 4/13/2025 @ 06:50 PM Eastern UNOFFICIAL

Rank Driver Car Starts GL Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts
1. William Byron 24 9 0 346 0 0 1 3 8
2. Denny Hamlin 11 9 0 316 -30 30 2 2 12
3. Christopher Bell 20 9 0 305 -41 11 3 1 16
4. Kyle Larson 5 9 -2 304 -42 1 2 4 14
5. Chase Elliott 9 9 1 278 -68 26 0 0 0
6. Ryan Blaney 12 9 -1 275 -71 3 0 2 2
7. Tyler Reddick 45 9 2 274 -72 1 0 0 0
8. Bubba Wallace 23 9 0 251 -95 23 0 1 1
9. Joey Logano 22 9 0 245 -101 6 0 2 2
10. Alex Bowman 48 9 0 244 -102 1 0 0 0
11. Ross Chastain 1 9 -1 229 -117 15 0 0 0
12. Chris Buescher 17 9 1 227 -119 2 0 0 0
13. Chase Briscoe 19 9 -1 213 -133 14 0 0 0
14. Ryan Preece 60 9 1 201 -145 12 0 1 1
15. Kyle Busch 8 9 0 200 -146 1 0 0 0
16. AJ Allmendinger 16 9 0 198 -148 2 0 0 0
17. Josh Berry 21 9 -3 179 -167 19 1 1 6
18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 9 0 176 -170 3 0 0 0
19. Michael McDowell 71 9 2 174 -172 2 0 0 0
20. Ty Gibbs 54 9 -6 171 -175 3 0 0 0
21. John Hunter Nemechek 42 9 2 171 -175 0 0 0 0
22. Austin Cindric 2 9 1 171 -175 0 0 1 1
23. Justin Haley 7 9 -6 164 -182 7 0 0 0
24. Zane Smith 38 9 2 161 -185 3 0 0 0
25. Carson Hocevar 77 9 -5 157 -189 4 0 0 0
26. Austin Dillon 3 9 -1 155 -191 2 0 0 0
27. Daniel Suarez 99 9 3 151 -195 4 0 0 0
28. Todd Gilliland 34 9 5 150 -196 1 0 0 0
29. Ty Dillon 10 9 4 146 -200 4 0 0 0
30. Erik Jones 43 9 2 139 -207 7 0 0 0
31. Brad Keselowski 6 9 0 132 -214 7 0 0 0
32. Noah Gragson 4 9 0 122 -224 10 0 0 0
33. Riley Herbst # 35 9 -1 101 -245 21 0 0 0
34. Shane Van Gisbergen # 88 9 1 98 -248 3 0 0 0
35. Cole Custer 41 9 0 85 -261 13 0 0 0
36. Cody Ware 51 9 0 45 -301 40 0 0 0
37. Jimmie Johnson  1 0 34 -312 11 0 0 0
38. * Corey LaJoie 01 3 0 24 -322 10 0 0 0
39. Katherine Legge  1 0 7 -339 17 0 0 0
40. Jj Yeley  3 0 4 -342 3 0 0 0
41. Casey Mears  1 0 2 -344 2 0 0 0
42. Burt Myers  1 0 1 -345 1 0 0 0
43. Martin Truex, Jr.  1 0 1 -345 0 0 0 0
44. Justin Allgaier(i)  1 0 0 -346 1 0 0 0
45. Bj Mcleod(i)  1 0 0 -346 0 0 0 0
46. Austin Hill(i)  1 0 0 -346 0 0 0 0
47. * Jesse Love(i) 33 1 47 0 -346 0 0 0 0
48. Connor Zilisch(i)  1 1 0 -346 0 0 0 0
49. * Josh Bilicki(i) 66 1 50 0 -346 0 0 0 0
50. Anthony Alfredo(i)  0 2 0 -346 0 0 0 0
51. Chandler Smith(i)  0 2 0 -346 0 0 0 0
52. Helio Castroneves  1 1 0 -346 0 0 0 0

-Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series