Kyle Larson dominates NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol

Kyle Larson is a winner at Bristol in dominant fashion.

The NASCAR Cup Series driver for Hendrick Motorsports swept the stages Sunday after starting the Food City 500 on the second row.

Larson led 411 of 500 laps during a race that had just one natural caution. His performance followed another convincing victory at Bristol in the Xfinity Series race Saturday and a second-place finish in Friday night’s Truck Series race.

“I race a lot, so it’s cool to win two times in a row,” Larson said. “But I don’t overthink it or celebrate too much. I just love to race, I love Bristol, and I was really excited about this weekend. Obviously, wish I could have been one spot better on Friday to join Kyle (Busch).

“Regardless, I had a great time this weekend, got to lead a bunch of laps, be challenged for wins and get a couple of them. Proud of it, and hopefully get the chance to do (the triple) again in the future.”

Denny Hamlin finished in second place, Ty Gibbs came in third, Chase Briscoe fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth.

Results from the Food City 500

Lap-by-lap updates from the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol

Lap 500: Kyle Larson wins!

Lap 497: Kyle Larson is closing in on victories on back-to-back days!

Lap 483: This has been a 202-lap green-flag run, marking the longest of the stage racing era and first 200-plus-lap run since Dover in 2016. It’s also the longest green-flag run at Bristol since 2004.

Lap 470: Kyle Larson has built his lead to roughly 1.4 seconds over Denny Hamlin, working through lapped traffic as he tries to continue holding off the pack.

Lap 462: Only nine cars are on the lead lap: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and AJ Allmendinger.

Lap 439: Ryan Blaney pits, and Kyle Larson becomes the leader once again.

Lap 420: Carson Hocevar went a lap down. Ryan Blaney still leads.

Lap 413: Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are both back in the Top Five behind Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace.

Lap 406: Kyle Larson is up into fifth place.

Lap 396: Ryan Blaney is the new leader. Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece jump into the Top Five on older tires.

Lap 389: Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin come down pit road. That’ll negate a wild stat that had been in play until now — this had a chance to be the first NASCAR Cup Series race in 25 years to have just one lead change, since Jeff Burton passed pole-sitter Bobby Labonte on Lap 0 at Loudon in 2000.

Lap 382: Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric come into the pits.

Lap 366: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. goes a lap down after initially starting the race on the front row alongside pole-sitter Alex Bowman. Only 19 cars are currently on the lead lap.

Lap 347: Alex Bowman comes off the race track. The No. 48 team works on his car in the middle of the infield.

Lap 338: Kyle Larson’s lead is more than four seconds at this point. Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney work through lapped traffic in the Top Five.

Lap 317: Kyle Larson leads by more than two seconds over Denny Hamlin. Ty Gibbs runs in third place, Carson Hocevar fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth. William Byron, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Justin Haley and AJ Allmendinger round out your current Top 10.

Lap 295: Alex Bowman’s radio reports a possible engine issue. He’s fallen back into 14th place after restarting this stage in P2.

Lap 285: Ty Gibbs got by Alex Bowman for third place behind Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin.

Lap 268: Denny Hamlin is running well behind Kyle Larson. Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs run behind them, with Carson Hocevar passing Christopher Bell for P5. Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Justin Haley and Chase Briscoe round out your Top 10.

Lap 265: Kyle Larson brings us back to green!

Lap 261: Kyle Larson beat Alex Bowman in the race off pit road. Denny Hamlin jumped two positions.

Lap 254: That marks the 66th stage win for Kyle Larson, tying him with Martin Truex Jr. for the most since the advent of stage racing in 2017.

Earning points following Stage 2: Larson, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick.

Stage 2

Lap 250: Kyle Larson wins the second stage in dominant fashion!

Lap 245: Kyle Larson is five laps away from sweeping the stages!

Lap 215: Kyle Larson’s lead is more than two seconds over Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin.

Your Top 10: Larson, Bowman, Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick.

Lap 192: Kyle Larson leads in front of Alex Bowman, who got by Denny Hamlin for second place. Christopher Bell runs in fourth place, with Justin Haley and Carson Hocevar side-by-side for P5.

Lap 187: Back to green! Kyle Larson gets out in front of Denny Hamlin.

Lap 182: Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are among several cars that head down pit road under this caution. Kyle Larson stayed out, and Blaney won the race off pit road.

Lap 176: Shane Van Gisbergen spins from 36th place! The lapped No. 88 car avoids contact with Denny Hamlin, and we have our first natural caution of the day.

Lap 158: Kyle Larson continues pacing the field, and Justin Haley has plenty of speed in second place. Denny Hamlin got back into P3 as he passed Carson Hocevar, and Alex Bowman runs in fifth.

Lap 142: Back to green! Kyle Larson jumps out in the lead. Justin Haley moves up into P2 alongside Carson Hocevar as Denny Hamlin falls back on the restart.

Lap 141: Kyle Busch and Shane Van Gisbergen get speeding penalties on pit road. Coming close o the restart, with Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin set to bring us back to green.

Lap 135: All lead lap cars head down pit road under the stage break caution. Kyle Larson beats Denny Hamlin in the race off pit road.

Lap 127: Kyle Larson dominated the back half of the opening stage and held off Denny Hamlin at the end.

Your points-getters following Stage 1: Larson, Hamlin, Justin Haley, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger.

Stage 1

Lap 125: Kyle Larson wins the opening stage!

Lap 117: Kyle Larson leads Denny Hamlin by more than one second. Justin Haley, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar run in the Top Five.

Lap 100: Still no tire wear issues as we close in on the final laps of Stage 1!

Lap 84: Kyle Larson has now lapped seven cars as his lead grows to roughly 1.7 seconds over Denny Hamlin.

Your Top 10: Larson, Hamlin, Justin Haley, Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Carson Hocevar, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs.

Lap 60: Kyle Larson puts Josh Bilicki a lap down.

Lap 53: Kyle Larson is building a big lead over Justin Haley, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and the rest of the pack, and we still have yet to have our first green-flag pit cycle.

Lap 40: There he goes! Kyle Larson gets by his teammate Alex Bowman for the lead.

Lap 39: Kyle Larson passes Justin Haley for P2!

Lap 34: Justin Haley got by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin for second place!

Lap 22: The field is getting more single-file behind Alex Bowman, with the entirety of it on the lead lap. Not far from our first pit stops of the day, as tires are expected to wear even quicker after NASCAR put the PJ1 TrackBite onto the track.

Lap 11: Alex Bowman has great pace early in front of the field. The No. 48 car leads as Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney run single-file behind.

Green flag, 3:13 p.m.: Here we go at Bristol!

3:03 p.m.: Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench and longtime Tennessee voice Bob Kesling give the command to fire the engines!

2:55 p.m.: Invocation has been given, and the national anthem has been performed! Racin’ soon!

2:40 p.m.: After a cold Saturday in the Tennessee mountains, it’s about 60 degrees and sunny for the Cup Series race this afternoon.

2:20 p.m.: NASCAR is reapplying the PJ1 TrackBite traction compound as opposed to the standard resin.

2:15 p.m.: Happy Race Day from The Last Great Colosseum! Alex Bowman is set to lead the Cup Series field to green for the second time this season, with his teammate Kyle Larson starting in third place.

Johnny Bench, the Baseball Hall of Famer, made a stop inside the Bristol Motor Speedway media center ahead of the Aug. 2 MLB game in which the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will square off on the infield. Home plate will be roughly in the middle of pit road where a flag pole currently stands, and the big screen end up positioned down the third-base line.

Hendrick Motorsports snags another pole

Bowman on Saturday won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver chasing his first victory of the season finished on top after a tightly contested qualifying session, edging Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Larson, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney for his career-best second pole this year.

It’s also Bowman’s second straight pole at Bristol, where he led the field before Larson’s win last fall in the most recent Cup race at the famed half-mile track.

There was extreme tire wear during practice and qualifying Saturday, following last year’s spring race at Bristol that saw NASCAR use resin instead of the PJ1 traction compound and deliver an epic green-flag run to cap Hamlin’s victory.

“In the spring last year, we rode around at what felt like half speed all day, and I thought I was going to get out of the car and everybody was going to be mad because we didn’t run hard all day,” Bowman said. “Everybody loved it because there was so much chaos. So in the fall, we just ran hard all day. You run hard every lap, and that’s kind of what Cup racing has become these days — how hard you have to run the car. There are some places you have to manage, but for the most part, you’re ten-tenths every lap.

“I think (Sunday), it’s really going to depend on when the cautions come out and what they do. Look at the end of that spring race, and we didn’t get any cautions for a lot of things that could have been cautions, probably. But at the beginning of the race, we were getting cautions all the time. So there are two ways to predict that, right? If you save too much and you keep getting all these cautions, you’re just giving away track position. But if you don’t get the cautions and you run too hard, you’re killed on that, too.”

Odds and prediction for the Food City 500

Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are tied for the favorite at +450 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, followed by Christopher Bell (+650), Ryan Blaney (+800), William Byron (+900) and Chase Elliott (+900).

The Observer’s Shane Connuck is picking Larson to get his third Cup win at Bristol and second in as many races. He started in the top five in both of his victories at the half-mile track, and a P3 starting position Sunday gives him a good shot to find the front of the pack. Bowman starting the race on the pole will help the Hendrick Motorsports cars stay atop the field, and the No. 5 car will be fast at Bristol once again — considering Larson led 276 of 300 laps in his dominant Xfinity Series victory on Saturday.

How to watch the NASCAR Cup race at Bristol

Race: Food City 500

Place: Bristol Motor Speedway (Bristol, Tennessee)

Track Length: 0.533-mile concrete oval

Date: Sunday, April 13

Time: 3 p.m. ET

Purse: $11,055,250

TV: FS1, 1:30 p.m. ET

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)

Distance: 266.5 miles (500 Laps)

Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 125; Stage 2 ends on Lap 250; and the Final Stage ends on Lap 500.

Starting lineup for the Food City 500

This story was originally published April 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Shane Connuck

The Charlotte Observer

Shane Connuck is a former journalist for The Charlotte Observer