BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Larson was never in danger of being eliminated from the playoffs Saturday night, and he was never in much danger of even being passed for the lead.
Larson led 462 of the 500 laps — the most laps led by a Bristol winner since Cale Yarborough led 496 in April 1977 — as he added a trophy to his case and momentum into the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
“We dominate a lot of races, but we might not close them all out, so it feels really good to close one out here,” Larson said.
It was a dominating performance in a race the polar opposite of the spring where tires wore out after 40-50 laps. Teams could go a full fuel run of 180 laps around the 0.533-mile high-banked concrete oval.
That meant lengthy green-flag runs and a race that is known for its sparks and cautions that re-rack the field ended up having three cautions for incidents and little controversy.
“I know you guys probably think that the race in the spring was better, but as a driver, I would way rather run 100 percent all night long for 500 laps than run 50 percent [managing tire wear],” Larson said. “I don’t think that’s much of a race. I grew up racing different stuff where you do push the whole race, but I think that version of Bristol [tonight] is way more exciting.”
With only Joey Logano locked into the quarterfinal round (Round of 12) entering the race, 11 drivers survived the first playoff round to advance: Larson, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe.
Two past champions — Martin Truex Jr. (who is retiring from full-time competition after this season) and Brad Keselowski — were among those eliminated. Ty Gibbs and Harrison Burton, both in their first Cup playoff appearances, also were eliminated.
Takeaways from Bristol:
Hamlin Champ Quest Continues
Denny Hamlin, arguably the most accomplished driver never to win a Cup title, entered the race Saturday six points below the playoff cutoff. He finished the night 15 points ahead thanks to a fourth-place finish and the second-most points earned (46) on the night.
“Making out of the first round I would never think to be a goal,” Hamlin said. “But certainly after the first two races [of the round], this feels good. But we expect a heck of a lot more than making it out of the first round.”
Hamlin isn’t concerned that having to sweat out the first round will impact him in the upcoming rounds. With the points reset, he is seven points above the new cutline entering the next round.
“For us, it’s take a breath here and now reset,” Hamlin said.
There’s Always Next Year (Except For Truex)
Gibbs entered the day six points above the cutline while Truex entered 12 points below — and both had strong cars. But they both sped on pit road and never recovered.
Truex got lapped after running in the top-five for much of the night prior to the penalty. He would have had to have won or finished second to have advanced.
“Once you get back there in the pack, it burns your tires off really quick,” Truex said. “I just couldn’t get up through there and my tires went away really fast and the leaders in clean air caught me quick. … You’ve got to keep track position and I lost all ours when I sped.”
He was 0.09 miles per hour above the NASCAR-mandated speed limit (for safety reasons) in a section on pit road.
“I was just trying to do the same thing every time [on pit road],” Truex said. “I’m just frustrated, upset and hate it for my guys. … I don’t know if we were quite good enough, but it would have been nice to find out at least and I hate I screwed it up.”
Gibbs also blamed himself for his speeding penalty. He had rallied to as high as eighth but his handling went away late and he finished 15th.
“The speeding penalty is on me,” Gibbs said. “We run under the lights [that signify RPM] so close, and I just got a little bit too much, I guess. My fault. Unfortunate.”
It was a disappointing night for Keselowski, who finished three laps down and never was a factor in rallying his way into the next round. He had planned for the tires to react much like the spring.
“We just didn’t have the pace — we were set up for the other tire I wish we had,” Keselowski said. “But we had what we had. We want to run better. We want to win races and make deep runs in the playoffs. Anything short of that is disappointing.”
Suarez Finishes 31st And Advances
Suarez had an awful day but with the speeding penalties to Truex and Gibbs, he was able to just nurse a slow car to the finish and advance.
It might have been the first time he celebrated after a 31st-place finish thanks to a 36-point cushion on the cutoff entering the race.
“It wasn’t pretty, obviously,” Suarez said. “We knew it was going to be a long night. We were the last car in practice. We qualified 31st and finished 31st. It’s not ideal. Luckily … we built a decent cushion.”
Suarez said he felt they ran the race they needed to run with a slow car.
“I was pushing when I had to push,” Suarez said. “All in all, we did a smart race. It wasn’t good. But it was smart.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
