Another dominant weekend for Kyle Larson.
No other way to put it.
After finishing second in Friday’s NASCAR Truck Series race and winning Saturday’s Xfinity Series event, he dominated the Food City 500, the Cup Series race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Larson started third and quickly moved to the front, capturing the first two stages on the way to his second win of the Cup season and 31st of his career. He led 411 of the 500 laps.
Denny Hamlin placed second. Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney occupied Spots 3, 4 and 5.
Here are three takeaways:
1. Kyle Larson goes 2-for-3 on weekend sweep attempt again
No, Larson didn’t notch the weekend sweep in his second attempt of the season. But just like his first try at Homestead-Miami, he got awfully close.
That March 21-23 weekend, Larson won the Truck race, possessed a huge lead in the final 10 laps of the Xfinity race before settling into fourth following an overtime restart and collected the checkers in the Cup race.
Larson retook the lead with 60 laps remaining Sunday afternoon when Blaney pitted. Larson also claimed the Cup race at Bristol last September.
"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. However many laps of green we ran, there was a lot of fun. I was pretty comfortable with things. Then, Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle and just kind of kept the pressure on from there.
"I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic. 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. Heart rate is up."
Larson dedicated his performance to his public relations representative and Hendrick Motorsports' director of communications, Jon Edwards, who died Thursday at age 52.
