By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Going down a lap early at Bristol will not eliminate you at Bristol.
Checkered Flag
Hendrick Motorsports has many iconic races and drivers. Kyle Larson led more laps than any of their HOF drivers has at any race track at Bristol last night. Larson, meanwhile, led 462 of 500 laps, the most since Cale Yarborough led 495 laps in 1977. Larson won for the 5th time in 2024 and is seeded first for the second of the three rounds of the playoffs culminating with a four driver winner take all at Phoenix.
Larson on when he knew he had a special machine
Larson on when he knew he had a special machine. “Yeah, I mean I knew I had a great car from the start of practice, but everything has to go right. You just don’t dominate like that without executing the whole weekend. We practiced well and qualified on the front row, which was super important. We got the lead early on, and leading these Next Gen races is really beneficial because you can set your own pace and manage your stuff, especially here at Bristol because it allows you to work the bottom on the long run. We had a phenomenal No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy. Just can’t say enough about the team. Cool to get win number five on the year and hopefully there is more to come.”
Pole winner Alex Bowman
After Bowman won the pole for the Bristol night race, he got to see first hand how strong Kyle Larson was right behind him. As the race wore on, Bowman’s #48 got a little loose. A top-10 at Bristol and you guys advanced. Did it change the race for you in any way when that happened? “No, honestly the racetrack just rubbered up and we progressively got worse as more rubber laid down, I felt like. Just proud of this No. 48 Ally Camaro team. We did what we needed the whole first round of the playoffs, but also we want to be better and continue that through the next round. Missed it a little today when it rubbered up, but other than that, really solid points day for us, and we’ll keep at it.” Bowman starts round two in the 11th position out of 12 cars moving forward.
Those Moving On
Chase Elliott- CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 LLUMAR CAMARO ZL1- Finished: 2nd
What more did your team need to catch the No. 5?
“I felt like our car was really, really good, and I was proud of the effort and proud of the execution all night. Kyle (Larson) did a better job than I did to get through traffic and that was the difference. He got a few cars gap on me, and there was one point in time where we were able to make (up) some time. I pushed really hard when he was hung up with the 19. Once he got by the 19, it was going to be tough. There were always three or four cars in between us and by the time I got there, we were later in the run and it just gets tough. He did a great job”
Those Moving On II
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 ZHP CAMARO ZL1 — Finished: 17th
It wasn’t the run you were looking for, but you advanced into the Round of 12.
“Yeah, that was the goal, for sure. It was definitely good to have a clean night; not have any issues and advance. Really proud of that. It was definitely tough for us. Really from lap three or four, the balance just wasn’t good. We really struggled, but the No. 24 Z HP Chevy team worked hard all night . Byron starts out Rd. 2, 4th in points.
First Stage Reshuffle
Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman were the only two Stage One leaders. No drama there. The drama is near the cutoff line as Tyler Reddick, the regular season Cup champion sits only seven points above missing the top 12, running 19th. Denny Hamlin sits at zero meaning he needs at least one point to have a chance at Round two. He knows he needs a win to take care of it. The biggest surprise is Martin True Jr. . He finishes fourth and gains a very needed 7 Stage One points.
Second Stage- Tires not an issue
Kyle Larson won both Stages 1 and 2 and his dominate performance gave him the lead three times for 214 laps. Tires were a huge factor in the spring race and most teams used up their full complement of Goodyear Tires. With warmer temperatures, the tire problems that made for exciting racing with strategy and gambling on how long you could run on them was not a problem in the Playoff night race. Pole winner Alex Bowman continued to sink among the leaders finishing 7th in Stage two after qualifying with the Pole earlier in the weekend. Christopher Bell earned enough points to move to round two and Martin Truex Jr. wins another nine points finishing second in Stage 2. Denny Hamlin receives 8 points for finishing third. Harrison Burton went to the garage midway in Stage two. The Fall Daytona winner had a handling problem. His 2025 playoffs will end in the first round. He moves to Xfinity in 2025.
12 Moving On.
4 Eliminated from the Playoffs
Comments from the eliminated
Brad Keselowski- Keselowski finished 26th and lamented the lack of speed in his RFK Racing Ford.
“Didn’t have the pace we wanted. We ran as hard as we could, there just wasn’t anything there,” Keselowski said. “Just gotta be faster.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing- Finishing Position: 24th
Do you think the speeding penalty kept you out of it?
“Possibly. We had a good Bass Pro Shops Camry. We did good in the first two stages – we got a lot of points. I guess we would have had to run second or third to make it through – who knows if we would have been able to. I wish we could have seen if we could have done that. I’m just gutted for my team. We worked so hard this week. We all put in a lot – all season long, and in the last three weeks, just snake bit. Can’t do anything right. .09 mph hurts really bad to take the chance away to know if we even could have done it. I don’t know if we could have run second – maybe. We were close to it – all day – but in the end, it doesn’t matter. I feel terrible for my guys.”
Denny Hamlin on Larson’s race
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing –Finishing Position: 4th
Can you take us through the emotions here as you advance?
“My aspirations were to win it – but it looked like the 5 (Kyle Larson) there was better than all of us. Solid car. I thought we were really good towards the middle of the stages, and then at the end, got too loose and couldn’t hang onto what we had. Overall, top-five day, good stage points – kind of in the mix, just not really as good as we’ve been here the last few times, but overall I want to thank this whole FedEx Toyota team for giving me something I can move on with.”
Next week, I will predict who will move from the Round of 12 to the Round of 8. There are always surprises.
Roy J. Akers is a multi-media reporter and covers several sports for www.skyviewsports.net
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