NASCAR at Texas live updates: Kyle Larson caps a dominant day with a win

The NASCAR Cup Series races today at Texas Motor Speedway. The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 race is at 2 p.m. on NBC.

The race is 501 miles (334 laps) with stages ending on laps 105, 210 and 334.

Follow along here for lap-by-lap updates. Refresh this page for the latest updates and follow NASCAR reporter Alex Andrejev on Twitter at @AndrejevAlex.

Live updates for this race have concluded. Full results and final analysis will be available here.

Final results

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Stage 3

6:01 p.m., Lap 334: Race over! Kyle Larson wins on a final sprint, holding off William Byron and Christopher Bell.

5:58 p.m., Lap 328: Guess what? Another caution. This time, Chris Buescher goes into the wall, comes across the bow of Hamlin in the 11, damages him and then slides into the inside wall.

5:51 p.m., Lap 323: Martin Truex Jr. 9th and Daniel Suarez make contact and Martin Truex Jr. hits turn 4 wall hard, and we have ANOTHER caution. Down to 11 to go, still under yellow, and the running order is eerily similar: Larson-Byron-Reddick-Keselowski. Kevin Harvick is now there, lorking in fifth.

5:42 p.m., Lap 315: Another yellow as Hamlin goes around. His tire went down quickly on the turn and he spun.

5:40 p.m., Lap 313: The restart was wild near the front! Kyle Larson got away clean on a nice push from Reddick, and Reddick slid into second momentarily, but William Byron managed to get back into that position. Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, pushed Keselowski up the track. Half a lap later, Blaney and Hamlin come together and Hamlin has smoke coming from the rear tires. Hamlin is going to have to pit.

5:37 p.m., Lap 307: Yellow is back out and cars are circling the track.

5:21 p.m., Lap 305: Yellow flag with 30 to go will make the finish interesting. Positions 9 on back took tires this time around, while the top 8 stayed out. The green flag lasted all of a half a lap before the 38 of Anthony Alfredo spun into the wall and the fuel trail burst into flames. Red flag waves, after the car came to rest in the middle of the track.

5:12 p.m., Lap 299: Caution is out. Logano is saying the engine blew up. That’s not good for the playoff driver, who was a good 20 points back as they ran before that happened. Left a trail of smoke on the track as he exited. Ouch.

5:10 p.m., Lap 297: In the playoff picture, Kyle Busch is in the fourth and final transfer spot, at the moment, 6 points up on Chase Elliott and Martin Truex. This is, of course, as they run, but the small number of points separating 4-5-6 is something to watch as we tick below 40 laps to go.

5:07 p.m., Lap 291: Kyle Larson’s lead is negligible right now since the restart from the caution. William Byron is really pushing him. Tyler Reddick is up to third position after displacing Brad Keslowski. Ryan Blaney rounds out the Top 5. All of the top four drivers are within a second of each other, and we still have 14 cars on the lead lap.

4:58 p.m. Lap 277: And we have a caution. With 13 cars on the lead lap at the time, now there will be 14. That’s still pretty low. With the yellow out, now, pit strategy is at the fore. This could be the final pit stop of the race for a lot of these cars, even the leaders. The yellow, by the way, was Chase Briscoe sliding up to the wall after contact with old friend Denny Hamlin. On the pit stops, all of the top three drivers exit as they came in.

4:49 p.m., Lap 265: Christopher Bell comes into the pits and drops the number of cars on the lead lap down to 14. Bell’s stop is unscheduled.

4:42 p.m., Lap 249: The lead grows for Kyle Larson, up to 2 seconds at last check. Byron is running well in second and Brad Keselowski has moved into third position. Blaney, after that big save earlier, now sits in fourth. We’re about 20 laps away from potential green-flag pit stops.

4:28 p.m., Lap 221: Ryan Blaney makes a big save running in the top five! His car wiggles, but Blaney doesn’t lose it while Kurt Busch pits from the top 10 for a vibration. Kyle Larson is still leading, but Kevin Harvick and Byron are battling for the second place spot.

Stage 2

4:19 p.m., Lap 210: Kyle Larson beats William Byron to the green-and-white checkered by 0.6 seconds to win Stage 2. Byron finishes second. Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch finish in the top 10. Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano are P11-12. Elliott is P15. The leaders pit, and Daniel Suárez, who was 14th, gets a speeding penalty. Larson has led 97 laps so far.

4:14 p.m., Lap 205: Kyle Larson continues to lead, followed by the same top five. Denny Hamlin is in seventh, Kyle Busch is in 10th, Martin Truex Jr. is in 11th. Joey Logano is in 12th and Chase Elliott is in 15th.

4:10 p.m., Lap 195: The running order is Kyle Larson, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. Kyle Busch has fallen to 10th and is frustrated with his car, saying that his splitter is way too high and the front tire is chattering.

4:02 p.m., Lap 180: Brad Keselowski moves ahead of Kevin Harvick into fourth. He drives low, then falls in ahead of Harvick and behind teammate Ryan Blaney. Keselowski sits below the points cutoff.

3:51 p.m., Lap 166: The caution comes out for debris on the backstretch with Chase Elliott and Joey Logano a lap down. They’ll take the wave-around here as the 11 leaders pit. Kyle Larson is the first driver off pit road. He keeps the lead with Kyle Busch and William Byron following.

3:45 p.m., Lap 153: Chase Elliott pits with a vibration under green due to a right front tire going down. The stop is in his fuel window, so he’ll be the earliest playoff driver to pit in this window and other green flag stops should start soon.

3:39 p.m. Lap 142: Chase Elliott (seventh) is racing with a car (Ryan Blaney) between him and Kevin Harvick (fifth). Elliott and Harvick raced cleanly side-by-side a few laps earlier, but Elliott lost pace and Blaney made his pass.

3:28 p.m., Lap 117: Kyle Larson is battling with teammate William Byron but moves up on race leader Kyle Busch and is able to make his pass on the inside as Byron gets behind Busch. Byron clears Busch a few laps later. Tyler Reddick and Kevin Harvick follow.

Stage 1

3:18 p.m., Lap 105: Kyle Busch makes it to the end of the stage in first. He was told to be in “full save mode” with fewer than five laps to go and Ryan Blaney on his tail. Blaney finishes in second, also stretching fuel. Kurt Busch, William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski finish in top 10.

3:07 p.m., Lap 94: Kyle Larson pits from the lead for fuel, followed shortly by William Byron. We’re seeing different pit strategies play out with Brad Keselowski going a lap down and trying to make it to the end of the stage without pitting while leaders pit. Kyle Busch will become the new leader as other pits and he’ll try to make it to the end of the stage without pitting.

3:02 p.m., Lap 81: Bubba Wallace speaks to NBC about the earlier wreck, saying that it was “just an embarrassment on my part.”

“Just trying to get clean air, went to the middle, was like, ‘Eh this isn’t good.’ I backed out and by the time I backed out, I was already around,” Wallace says. Sorry to everybody that came here to cheer on the 23 car. I let everybody down. I let my team down, so I apologize to them. We’ll finish it out in Kansas.”

Kyle Larson is the race leader.

2:56 p.m., Lap 69: Kyle Larson is up to third, after getting around Denny Hamlin for the position. Those two drivers lead the points standings. Larson won the All-Star race at Texas this year, but Hamlin has won all opening playoff rounds so far. They’ll both have to catch William Byron up ahead though.

2:52 p.m., Lap 61: At least eight cars are listed out of the race, including those driven by Ryan Newman, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. William Byron continues to lead. Tyler Reddick is 1.5 seconds behind him.

“I just need a little something for exit of (Turn 2),” Byron tells his team.

2:41 p.m., Lap 40: Some cars come down pit road to top off for fuel. William Byron’s team says that the long caution will put them close to the fuel window, but the No. 21 of Matt DiBenedetto will give them a boost on the restart. Byron leads on Lap 42, with Martin Truex Jr. falling in behind him. Chase Elliott is into ninth. Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman and Ryan Newman are listed out of the race.

2:35 p.m., Lap 33: THE BIG ONE at Texas: NBC lists 15 cars in the last wreck, including, Newman, Almirola, Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Walalce, McDowell, Preece, Alfredo, Custer, Chastain, Stenhouse, Bowman, Bilicki, Gase and Haley.

2:32 p.m., Lap 31: The caution is out for a massive wreck involving multiple cars on the backstretch mid-pack. Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Custer, Aric Almirola and Anthony Alfredo were all involved. Kyle Busch, the only playoff driver in the pack, seems to have avoided significant damage. Busch’s team changes the tires and checks out his left rear fender, where he had some slight contact.

2:26 p.m., Lap 26: The leaders pit for tires and Kyle Busch gets a speeding penalty. He pits again for two more tires and will drop to the rear.

2:24 p.m., Lap 25: At the competition caution, the running order is Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. Larson has led all lap so far. Chase Elliott, who dropped to the rear for the start, is up to 13th.

2:19 p.m., Lap 20: Kyle Larson is still the race leader. William Byron, who was eliminated from playoffs after the last round, is in the top five in fifth. Hendrick Motorsports cars are showing their speed.

2:15 p.m., Lap 13: Chase Elliott is up to 17th after dropping to the rear. Kyle Larson, who started on the pole, has led all laps so far. Kevin Harvick, who started 24th, has dropped a few positions to 27th. Denny Hamlin has dropped to sixth.

NASCAR Cup points pre-Texas

Pre-race

Pre-race ceremonies complete

2:05 p.m.: Alex Bowman and Justin Haley will also drop to the rear for the race start due to unapproved adjustments. Bowman was eliminated from the playoffs after the race at the Charlotte Roval last weekend and was slated to start 14th. Haley was slated to start 32nd.

2 p.m.: Texas native and professional singer Sarah Hobbs performs the national anthem at Texas Motor Speedway. NFL Hall of Famers Tony Dorsett and Tim Brown give the command to fire engines. There will be a competition caution on Lap 25.

Elliott trying to focus ahead after Harvick drama

Chase Elliott didn’t comment much on last week’s drama with Kevin Harvick, which manifested in Harvick hitting Elliott to send him spinning into the wall at the Charlotte Roval in retaliation for an earlier move by Elliott at Bristol. The AP reported earlier this week that NASCAR held a call with both parties, warning about consequences from the santioning body if the feuding continued.

Elliott deflected a question about the situation on NBC before the race, saying that his No. 9 Chevrolet team is, “keeping our eyes and our focus where it needs to be, which is getting to Phoenix and trying to win another championship.”

“So that’s where our head is, still currently where my head’s at,” Elliott said.

He was also asked about dropping to the rear for his No. 9 team twice failing pre-race technical inspection, to which he noted that Texas Motor Speedway is, “definitely a tough place and one of, if not the most, challenging track to move forward in large chunks.”

“We’ll try to get what we can. Hopefully our car has pace,” Elliott said. “Like we always say, if you’re fast and you’re able to make some good lap time, your options become more abundant so hopefully that’s the case for us today. And try to be smart, control what’s in our hands and head to work.”

He was previously slated to start sixth. Kyle Larson is starting on the pole.

Elliott dropping to the rear for inspection failures

NASCAR announces that five cars have twice failed pre-race technical inspection, including the No. 9 Chevrolet driven by Chase Elliott. Elliott was slated to start sixth and was the only playoff team to twice fail pre-race inspection. He will drop to the rear for the start of today’s race.

Additionally, the cars driven by Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Garrett Smithley and David Starr will drop to the rear for multiple inspection failures. There were no three-time failures.

How to watch the NASCAR playoff race at Texas

• Race: Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500
• Distance: 501 miles (334 laps) with stages ending on laps 105, 210 and 334
• Where: Texas Motor Speedway
• When: Sunday, Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. EST
• TV: NBC
• Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

NASCAR at Texas starting lineup

This story was originally published October 17, 2021 at 1:04 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription