Simply stated, Kyle Larson and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 team dominated the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
The 2021 Cup Series champions led 411 laps, including the entire second stage, only ceding the top spot for green flag pit stops in the final stage to seal his 31st victory at the highest level.
“Yeah, just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team,” Larson said. “Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun. You know, however many laps of green we ran, there was a lot of fun. I was pretty comfortable with things. Then Denny (Hamlin) came on really strong there before the pit cycle, and then, yeah, just kind of kept the pressure on from there.
“I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic. I felt like I did a pretty good job there in traffic. Split the middle sometimes when I needed to. So, yeah, just a lot of fun. A little bit out of breath. Just so high-paced here, and heart rate is up.”
The win also comes as the organization competed with a heavy heart with the loss of communication director Jon Edwards who worked with Jeff Gordon and then Larson for a combined 31 years.
“This one is definitely for Jon,” Larson said. “He is just a great guy here, so we’re going to miss him but successful weekend here. Wish he was going to be here with us to celebrate, but I know he’s celebrating with us in spirit.”
Objectively speaking, the Food City 500 was an uneventful affair, with only one green flag pass for the lead that was not the result of green flag pit stops. So, on one hand, Larson was the beneficiary of track position but also drove to the lead from third place but also had to navigate traffic over the final 100 laps during the green flag cycle.
Despite a colder Saturday that produced extreme tire shedding reminiscent of last spring, the temperatures were up about 20 degrees and there was no tire fall off whatsoever.
“Early on, yeah, we were all kind of just riding in line like we did in the spring last year, and I was just trying to keep an eye on the track,” Larson said.
“I felt like, you know, it was starting to get a little bit darker on exit, so I was, like, All right, that means some rubber is laying down. Then people kind of got the middle working. Then we get back down. I was like, Screw it, I’m just going to go to the lead here and pick the pace up and maybe the pace will help lay the rubber down even more.
“It did, and it turned into a normal Bristol track there for us. So really played in our favor. Obviously having track position helps a lot.”
Denny Hamlin finished second and it was the seventh time that these two drivers finished 1-2 but the first time that Larson came out on top.
“Yeah, we really did, but you’ve got to give that team their due and Kyle his due,” Hamlin said. “Just a dominant performance. You know, it looked like a pretty flawless day for him, so it looked pretty easy.
“It was all I had to try to keep up there. You know, glad we were able to give him a little bit of run with our Progressive Toyota, but this weekend we’re all thinking about Jon Edwards, his family, Al Pearce, Shigeaki Hattori. We’ve lost a lot of great people in our sport over this past week. So our thoughts are with them.
“Yeah, wish we could have got one more spot, but I just wanted to keep them honest there at the end. That’s all I try to do, but he just was too much to handle.”
Larson also conceded that the race could have been different had the track position been flipped.
“You know, if Denny is in front of me, it could be a totally different story and be really hard to pass him, but glad to stop his three-peat,” Larson said. “We hate to see him win, as I’m sure you guys do too. It’s just good to be back here at victory lane.”
Ty Gibbs was third and Chase Briscoe also put JGR Toyotas in the top-five alongside Ryan Blaney. Alex Bowman claimed the pole on Saturday and had a race contending car until his engine expired in the final stage. He was running third at the time and finished 37th.
Gibbs especially needed this result after a struggle to start his season.
“It’s definitely really nice,” Gibbs said. “We had a really good clean day, so you know, really happy to have that. It’s been pretty chaotic start to our year. I think we’re back where we’re going to run. But really excited for the future and to get back racing after this off weekend. I think we’re really capable of winning a lot this year, so we’ll see what we can do and go out and have a fun time, have a blast.”
William Byron leaves Bristol with a 30 point lead over Hamlin, 41 over Bell and 42 over Larson.
- Kyle Larson (S1) (S2)
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- Chase Briscoe
- Ryan Blaney
- William Byron
- Ross Chastain
- Christopher Bell
- AJ Allmendinger (x)
- Austin Dillon
- Carson Hocevar
- Josh Berry
- Justin Haley
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Cindric
- Tyler Reddick
- Bubba Wallace
- Ryan Preece
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Noah Gragson
- Joey Logano
- Chris Buescher
- Erik Jones
- Zane Smith
- Riley Herbst #
- Cole Custer
- Michael McDowell
- Jesse Love * (i)
- Ty Dillon
- Daniel Suarez
- Corey LaJoie *
- Todd Gilliland
- Cody Ware
- Alex Bowman
- Shane van Gisbergen #
- Josh Bilicki * (i)
