June 20, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Music City Madness: Kyle Larson dominates Cup debut at Nashville Superspeedway

LEBANON, Tenn.--Once again, Kyle Larson’s talent was on display and all the competition could do was watch the back of the No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet on Sunday.

In NASCAR’s return to Nashville Superspeedway, Larson etched his name in the record book as the first Cup winner at the 1.33-mile track in the Ally 400--and picked up an iconic Gibson guitar for his effort.

Larson masterfully saved fuel over the final 68 laps en route to his fourth victory of the season and his third in the last three races.

“Hell of a team. Hell of a car, good job again,” Larson said over the radio. “Four in a row (counting the All-Star Race), this is awesome!”

Larson led 264 of 300 laps and finished 4.335-seconds ahead of Ross Chastain, who scored a career-best second-place finish. William Byron, pole-sitter Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, and Joey Logano rounded out the top 10.

“To come to a 750 hp track – lifting, sliding and moving all over the race track trying to get forward drive, it was really good,” Chastain said.

The second and final stage evolved into a follow-the-leader contest behind Larson, but the underlying storyline was the disintegration of a number of brake packages that plagued a number of drivers throughout the race starting with Ryan Blaney on Lap 55. Although he reported an issue 20 laps earlier, the result was brutal.

“It was not a very good start to our day and not a good end, either,” said Blaney who pitted before the race began with unexpected damage. “We had an issue before the race and had to come and fix it. Then we had some brake trouble and we came in and pulled tape, and then on the restart I’m not sure if I broke a rotor—I think that’s what happened because something exploded into one and then no brakes and took a pretty big lick. 

“It’s a shame. Just not a very good day for us and hate that it ended early.”

Eighteen laps after the race returned to green, Justin Haley’s brakes failed. Not only did it end Haley’s day, but Chris Buescher also ran over brake debris, cut a tire and pounded the wall and was in the garage after 77 laps. Haley and Buescher finished 36th and 37th, respectively.

Kurt Busch, who stayed out on the track, had the lead for a five-lap shootout to the Stage 1 green-white-checkered flag. However, Chase Elliott took the point and the victory on Lap 90—ending Larson’s streak of seven stage wins.

Bubba Wallace received damage from debris—twice—first when it hit his roof, then after running over debris from the No. 13 car. He spun the second time in Turn 2 on Lap 131. Cole Custer was the next victim of brake failure and ignited the seventh caution on Lap 173 after hitting the Turn 1 wall. Larson quickly regained the lead on the Lap 181 restart and held serve until the Stage 2 win on Lap 185—his 12th of the season.

Larson was already in command of the third stage when Ryan Preece broke a brake rotor on Lap 197 while running 23rd. Wallace spun again on Lap 218. Chastain remained on the track while Larson stopped for service. The No. 5 Chevy was first out of the pits and quickly regained the lead on the restart.

The 10th and final caution occurred on Lap 227 when Chase Briscoe slammed into the Turn 4 fence after losing his brakes. He was running seventh at the time but finished 32nd. Chastain used the caution to top off for fuel. Brad Keselowski, who had reported brake issues earlier, pitted for an extended stop.

Larson led Hendrick teammates Byron and Elliott on the final restart on Lap 233. Elliott reported a loose left rear tire on Lap 271 and fell out of the top 10. After successfully saving fuel, with 10 laps remaining and a 5.5-second lead, crew chief Cliff Daniels told Larson to let loose.

“It was a great day,” Larson said. “We never really had to run behind people, so I don’t know. If one of my teammates got out front again it probably would have been hard to pass them. This Valvoline Chevrolet was really good. It cut the middle of the corner really well and our pit crew did an awesome job again. That number one pit stall helps a bunch, too. This crowd is awesome!”

Larson celebrated his 10th career win with a burnout that stretched the length of the Nashville Superspeedway grandstand.

“I was going to do something here and then I looked down there and thought, yeah, there’s a lot of fans down there, too,” Larson said. “I need to go to the end. But we had enough rubber and fuel leftover to do a good burnout there at the end.

“I can’t say enough about everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com, Valvoline, and thanks to everybody who has been a part of this team this year. I just hope we can keep it going.”

After post-race inspection, Elliott, the defending Cup champion was disqualified for having five loose lug nuts on the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. He was scored 39th.

Larson, who is second in the standings, cut the deficit between him and points leader Denny Hamlin to nine. Hamlin, who was running 10th in the closing laps was forced to pit for fuel with three laps remaining and finished 22nd.

Considering that Daniels believes he and Larson are still getting acquainted, the team's potential is frightening.

"Not only is he an amazing talent, but he's also very, very smart behind the wheel of understanding what is going on with other racers around him, if somebody is off sequence, if we're off sequence, what does that look like," Daniels said. "He does such a good job. We're kind of in sync going into a race because the prep time we put in during the week. I think if we weren't able to do that, then it would just be a tougher learning curve.

"Sounds crazy to say, but we're still learning each other every week. Couldn't be more thankful for what we have now."