By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
The usual suspects are the favorites at Bristol. Mention Denny Hamlin, and you get Kyle Larson mentioned. Throw in Ryan Blaney, and there is little room for any other name. Well, we might add Christopher Bell and a few other dark-horse picks and someone will win the Food City 500. The veterans have won big at this track, but young veterans Carson Hocevar, and Ty Gibbs are knocking on the door.
This will take us to the green flag.
Stage One (Laps 1-125)
Ryan Blaney takes the field to green and leads the first 43 laps when SVG crosses up the 12 and last year’s winner Kyle Larson takes the lead. Ty Gibbs quickly slides backwards after Q5. Larson uses picks and lapped traffic to thwart Blaney. Brad Keselowski gets loose in T2 on lap 61 and the first race caution is waved. Connor Zilisch and Chase Elliott stay out and are 1-2 on the lap 70 restart. Larson takes the lead a lap later. Larson would extend his lead to two seconds and ten machines were scored a lap down. Larson wins his first Stage of the season. One caution for cause for eight laps.
Stage Two (Laps 126-250)
Larson leads the field to green on lap 135. Bell gets loose on lap 144 in T2 and he makes wall contact. He quickly falls multiple laps down. The race resumes on lap 145 and Larson leads Chase Briscoe, and Josh Berry. Three-car pileup as Alex Bowman, collides with John Hunter Nemechek and SVG. Larson leads at the lap 167 green flag. Bowman retires on lap 172. With the track bottom PBJ treatment wearing out, drivers are moving up to the outside line of the track. Larson continues to lead the laps as Blaney challenges but Daniel Suarez races the 12 hard and Larson builds a one-second lead. Twenty-four drivers of 38 remain on the lead lap. Larson wins the Stage.
Final Stage (251 to Finish)
Larson leads the field to green on lap 260 with Hamlin and Briscoe 2-3. Only three drivers have led in the race, with Larson leading 199 of 250 through S2. Lap 312 brings about a multi-car wreck with Kyle Busch, Eric Jones, and Michael McDowell all being collected. The field comes to pit taking tires, Sunoco Fuel, and wedge adjustments. Larson takes the green flag on lap 321 with Blaney and Hamlin 2-3. Blaney finally times Larson and takes the lead on lap 338. Gibbs and Logano are 3-4. Blaney’s lead is nearly two seconds with 146 laps to go.
The top five remains largely unchanged, and with 118 to go, Connor Zilisch brings out the caution spinning in turn two. Blaney’s nearly four-second lead is wiped out. Blaney and Larson have led all but six laps of the race. Blaney leads at the green flag with Larson and Gibbs 2-3. Blaney has once again built a 1.6-second lead and growing over Larson with multiple lapped cars between them. With 40 laps to go, Larson is running nearly .02 seconds better than Blaney. With 23 laps to go, turn two gets another driver as Elliott goes into the wall with a lack of grip. A huge reshuffling occurs as Larson and Blaney pit. Gibbs. Gibbs- Hocevar, and Briscoe are 1-2-3. Gibbs takes turn one with the lead with 15 to go. Larson and Blaney join the party. Blaney and Gibbs are 1-2.
Riley Herbst goes in the turn one wall with three laps to go and we have overtime. Blaney and Gibbs go toe-to-toe for the overtime laps and Gibbs takes Blaney’s best shot and wins by 0013.
The Checkered Flag – Ty Gibbs
Ty Gibbs qualified well (5th) to start the race, but his machine was loose and he quickly slides to 15th. After that, he ran up front and finally took the lead with 25 laps to go as Blaney takes four tires and Larson two. Gibbs earned his first career victory. Both he and his grandfather and team owner Joe Gibbs were giddy. For the year, in eight races, you have five Top-5’s and six top-tens.
You’ve been knocking on the door of this first career Cup Series victory for a while now. You get to say you’re a winner today in the Cup Series. Describe the emotion?
“It’s awesome. It’s awesome to be with great people. To be in this position is great. I’d love for my father to have seen this. I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well. It was great day for us. My boys didn’t give up. Pit crew is just amazing. This is our family. It’s been great. So it’s just such great deal.
Very honored to be in this situation. Thank you for Monster Energy. Been with me my whole career. Mitch Covington, Dave Gowland, Elton, everybody a part of it. They’ve been with me since I was a kid. I really appreciate this.”
Factoids that may interest only me
Kyle Larson is one of nine drivers to lead 2,000+ career laps at Bristol. The leader is Cale Yarborough – 4,305.
Joey Logano won three times at Bristol but has only two top-ten starts in his last ten races.
With Tyler Reddick’s 4th place finish, he is one point from clinching the CUP playoffs with 18 regular season races to go. Yes, you read that right! – Stat provided from the Fox TV crew.
Tale of the Tape
Only four drivers led the race. Blaney, Larson, Elliott and Gibbs.
Only 16 of the 38 starters raced all 505 laps.
They Said It…
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Finished: 3rd
“It was just really aggressive, hard racing there at the end. Ty (Gibbs, race winner) did a great job of hanging on with fresher tires behind him. Just proud of this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. We had a great day. (Ryan) Blaney probably had the best car, but his pit crew was putting him behind all day, which allowed us to lead a lot of laps and win both stages. I knew he’d be hard to beat. I was watching my mirror; he’d have a bad pit stop and drive right back up to second with no problem. We were just a little too free to run the pace he was running around the bottom, even on the top, too. All-in-all, we’ll take it – two stage wins and a third-place finish.”
Ryan Blaney on Gibbs win
WHAT IS THIS MOMENT LIKE FOR TY? “You never forget your first one, that’s for sure. Even though I’m bummed we didn’t win the race, I’m happy that Ty was able to get his first one because I remember what that was like and I remember the elation and the joy, especially when you’ve come close a handful of times, which he has. Honestly, Ty has dealt with a lot of criticism from the outside, and I feel like he’s handled it pretty well and it’s good to see that he’s been able to prove himself on the racetrack. You never forget that first one. I hope they have a good time.”
Fantasy Picks
SVS picks have been on a roll, with final stats taking us well above 200 each of the last three weeks. Strangely, we lost ground at Martinsville, as everyone rostered Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and race winner Chase Elliott. This week, Denny Hamlin should be on your roster. He is not on ours, as he has already been in four of the allotted 10 regular-season races.
Who’s in: Ty Gibbs has been running well at the track and Kyle Larson must be in everyone’s lineup. Carson Hocevar is on the bench to start the race. Tyler Reddick is looking to build off of his 2nd place qualifying run. Chase Elliott was taken out of the lineup due to poor qualifying and replaced by Chris Buescher. Reddick was also added late.
Another great day with 269 points. Ty Gibbs wins and we have had the winner rostered nearly every race this year. Larson finishes third and Reddick has another top performance. Hocevar sinks to tenth on the restart. Hocevar replaced Buescher after the first stage. We earned 30 matchup points.
Got Next
NASCAR goes to KANSAS Motor Speedway for race nine of the season on Sunday, April 19th.
