Hendrick Motorsports found themselves in the spotlight at Bristol this Saturday night. All four drivers secured their spots in the second round of the NASCAR Playoffs as they left Thunder Valley.
Kyle Larson shone the brightest by leading nearly 92% of the 500 scheduled laps, clinching his fifth win of the season. Chase Elliott followed closely behind, contributing to a 1-2 finish for Rick Hendrick’s team.
Consequently, Elliott ended up on the wrong side of a new Bristol record, as Kyle Larson’s 7.088-second Margin of Victory ranks as the second-largest since the digital scoring system began in 1993. However, Elliott insists that the gap between him and his teammate wasn’t as significant as the results might suggest.
Chase Elliott acknowledges that Kyle Larson excelled in navigating traffic at Bristol
This year’s Bristol Night Race can be viewed in two ways. For Larson’s fans, it was a complete domination; for others, it showcased a nearly flawless display of high-stakes short-track racing.
The memories of unpredictable tire wear from the March Bristol Spring Race loomed large. When Goodyear announced they would use the same tire sets, the key question was whether the same issues would arise on a cooler surface this time.
Aside from the stage breaks, there were only three cautions during the race, and no significant tire problems occurred. The only real “falloff” was seen in the Playoff eliminations, with Ty Gibbs, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and Harrison Burton all eliminated from championship contention.
On the bright side, Kyle Larson heads to Kansas as the top seed of the Round of 12, followed by William Byron in fourth (+14) and Chase Elliott in seventh (+6). Alex Bowman is the only Hendrick driver outside the bubble with a -7 points deficit.
Chase Elliott’s main competition was with Kyle Larson. In a post-race conference video shared on Twitter by Peter Startta, the reigning Most Popular Driver discussed where he fell short to Larson. Elliott remarked, “I feel like my car was really good. I don’t think his car was any better than mine. I think he did a little better job than I did getting into traffic, and that was certainly the difference…”
“We were both just pacing ourselves, waiting for the lapped traffic. I thought I did an okay job, but he managed to slice through, and I got caught up,” admitted the driver of the #9 Llumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Despite falling seven seconds short of a perfect outcome, he considered it a “solid night.” In response to a question about the absence of tire issues at Bristol, Elliott noted, “That’s been the norm here, you know? I mean, the spring race was kind of an outlier. But I’d say this was very typical.”
What is unusual in the Next-Gen era is a seven-second MOV on the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” Interestingly, five cars finished on the lead lap at Bristol during the Spring Race, while only six more did so under the night conditions on Saturday.
The conclusion is evident: something seems to be dampening the excitement at NASCAR’s short track. Whether it’s a lack of horsepower or a gear-shifting issue, all parties need to collaborate to find a solution. Otherwise, dominating victories like Kyle Larson’s could undermine their competitive balance.
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No one has ruled Bristol quite like the #5 driver did in almost 16 years. Kyle Busch was the last driver to lead over 400 laps since Bristol Motor Speedway implemented a variable-banking system in 2007. At the 2008 Night Race, Busch led 47 fewer laps than Larson’s 462 on Saturday. Such domination on a short track is indeed rare.
Sixteen years later, Rowdy struggled for speed all day, finishing P25 with little to celebrate. Nonetheless, as Kyle Larson stated after the race, “We (the #5 team) dominate many races, but we might not finish them all, so it felt great to close one out in this HendrickCars.com Chevy.”
Although he ranks as the sixth-best full-time driver in NASCAR now, Larson has only secured four wins in his last 56 races on tracks shorter than a mile. There’s validity in his claim. Moreover, it’s not as though one driver consistently wins all the short-track races in this Next-Gen car.
However, some drivers tend to be frequent front-runners at tracks like Bristol and Richmond. Denny Hamlin, NASCAR’s current statistical “short-track king,” won the last two Bristol races before Larson, finishing 4th for Joe Gibbs Racing this year.
Ultimately, Hendrick Motorsports came out on top. All four drivers remained near the top 10 throughout the day, except for William Byron, who lost a stage point in Stage 2 and finished 17th. The playoff field has narrowed for those vying for the Bill France Cup.
This playoff will again pit teammates against each other, rivals against rivals, and likely several contenders against former champions. Who will advance, and who will be eliminated? We look forward to the next round in just a few weeks at Kansas Speedway.
