Larson hits half-mile haymaker, dominates for Bristol spring race win
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.
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the infamous Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks for Jack's Links 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX.)
Happy Easter to all of you!
Let's Go Racing!
Website is updated!
Boogity Boogity Boogity!!!!
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.
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the infamous Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks for Jack's Links 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX.)
Happy Easter to all of you!
Let's Go Racing!
Website is updated!
Boogity Boogity Boogity!!!!
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Any questions or concerns:
mailto:kelly.disano@yahoo.com
mailto:kelly.disano@yahoo.com
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THE FRONTPAGE Driver Points Wins
1Christopher Bell 305 3 2Denny Hamlin 316 2 3Kyle Larson 304 2 4William Byron 346 1 5Josh Berry 179 1 6Chase Elliott 278 0 7Ryan Blaney 275 0 8Tyler Reddick 274 0 9Bubba Wallace 251 0 10Joey Logano 245 0 11Alex Bowman 244 0 12Ross Chastain 229 0 13Chris Buescher 227 0 14Chase Briscoe 213 0 15Ryan Preece 201 0 16Kyle Busch 200 0 2025 ENTRIES Total Points Rank Bristol #9 Points Back Change 1Koz B 68 0 0 2One Lugnut 70 2 0 3Drew-2 74 6 0 4Tony Cavallo 83 15 0 5Tonto & Bly 87 19 1 6Gabe Howarth 93 25 -1 7Kellster 100 32 1 8Real Ripps 101 33 11 9JJT111 102 34 7 10Victory Lap 103 35 1 
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Winners and Losers after Darlington
Winners Kyle Larson -- He led 411 of 500 laps to score his second win of the season and second consecutive win at Bristol. He’s led 873 of the last 1,000 laps run at Bristol in Cup. He also won Saturday’s Xfinity race and finished second in Friday’s Truck race. Joe Gibbs Racing -- The team’s cars finished second, third, fourth and eighth. Denny Hamlin was second, Ty Gibbs placed a season-best third, Chase Briscoe was fourth and Christopher Bell finished eighth. Ryan Blaney — He has scored back-to-back fifth-place finishes. Ross Chastain — His seventh-place finish marked his third top 10 in a row. AJ Allmendinger -- His ninth-place finish marked his third top-10 finish in the last five races. Losers Alex Bowman -- He started on the pole and led 39 laps before an engine issue ended his race, leaving him with a 37th-place finish. This is the third race in a row he has finished 27th or worse. Shane van Gisbergen — The Cup rookie finished 38th, marking the fifth time in the last six races he’s placed 30th or worse. Daniel Saurez — He finished 33rd, six laps behind the leaders Sunday. He finished 31st, four laps behind the leaders in last year’s playoff race at Bristol. 
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