Race report
NASCAR Cup Bristol
Kyle Larson unstoppable in dominant NASCAR Cup win at Bristol
Larson earns his 31st career win at Bristol Motor Speedway ahead of the only off-week for the rest of the 2025 NASCAR season
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Apr 14, 2025, 12:52 AM
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Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images
Kyle Larson started Sunday's race from third, and quickly charged into the race lead. He never looked back, leading 411 laps and taking the checkered flag for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson also won both stages as he earned his second consecutive Bristol win.
Afterwards, Larson's thoughts immediately went to Jon Edwards, the beloved director of racing communications at HMS who unexpectedly passed away a few days ago.
"Yeah, it’s special," said Larson. "You know, Jon Edwards meant a lot to the 5 team, and a lot to the NASCAR Industry, too. Just good to get a win for him. Obviously, we don’t want to be winning for him and his spirit, we wish he was here in person with us. But he is no longer here, so it’s just going to be fun to celebrate and I know he is smiling down on us. We had a damn good weekend, as he would say. A lot of fun, and I can’t say enough about the team. The car they brought again here to Bristol was amazing and just makes it fun for me.”
Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Speaking more about the race itself, Larson said: “It’s fun. I love this place because it is just so high paced and with traffic; just dicing it up and picking the right lines at the right time while conserving your tires. It’s like a 500 lap sprint car race. It just suits me and my style with quick decision making. I just love this place. I think a lot of us do here in this series. Just had another good race.”
There was only one accident throughout the entire 500-lap race, which occurred 178 laps into the event when Shane van Gisbergen spun out. Pole-sitter Alex Bowman also suffered an engine failure and was among three cars who failed to finish the race. Other than a runaway wheel causing a scare on pit road, it was fairly uneventful race.
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But Larson was a dominant force from green flag to checkered flag, and with no real tire wear throwing a wrench into things, drivers were willing to roll the dice in hopes of stealing some much-needed track position.
During the final round of green-flag pit stops, Ryan Blaney chose to run longer than anyone else. He had the entire field at least one lap down, just waiting and praying for a lucky yellow. It never came, and he finally made his way to the pits for his final stop.
Larson retook command of the race, but it was no true runaway. Denny Hamlin, aiming to win three consecutive Cup races, was never far behind and kept the pressure on as they navigated through slower traffic. But he never could get close enough to mount a true challenge, even as Larson scraped the wall in the closing laps.
Behind Larson and Hamlin, Ty Gibbs earned his best finish of the year with third. Chase Briscoe finished fourth and Blaney battled back up to fifth. William Byron, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger, and Austin Dillon filled out the remainder of the top ten.
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NASCAR Cup
50
Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Pits Points 1 K. LarsonHendrick Motorsports 5 Chevrolet 500
2:38'43.053
5 2 D. HamlinJoe Gibbs Racing 11 Toyota 500
+2.250
2:38'45.303
2.250 6 3 T. GibbsJoe Gibbs Racing 54 Toyota 500
+6.769
2:38'49.822
4.519 6 4 C. BriscoeJoe Gibbs Racing 19 Toyota 500
+6.911
2:38'49.964
0.142 6 5 R. BlaneyTeam Penske 12 Ford 500
+7.395
2:38'50.448
0.484 9 6 W. ByronHendrick Motorsports 24 Chevrolet 500
+7.997
2:38'51.050
0.602 6 7 R. ChastainTrackHouse Racing 1 Chevrolet 500
+11.432
2:38'54.485
3.435 7 8 C. BellJoe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 500
+14.895
2:38'57.948
3.463 6 9 A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 500
+16.505
2:38'59.558
1.610 6 10 A. DillonRichard Childress Racing 3 Chevrolet 499
+1 Lap
2:38'45.928
1 Lap 7 11 C. HocevarSpire Motorsports 77 Chevrolet 499
+1 Lap
2:38'46.020
0.092 6 12
J. BerryWood Brothers Racing
21 Ford 499
+1 Lap
2:38'48.267
2.247 6 13 J. HaleySpire Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 499
+1 Lap
2:38'49.373
1.106 6 14 K. BuschRichard Childress Racing 8 Chevrolet 499
+1 Lap
2:38'51.533
2.160 8 15 C. ElliottHendrick Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 499
+1 Lap
2:38'52.106
0.573 7 16 B. KeselowskiRFK Racing 6 Ford 498
+2 Laps
2:38'43.460
1 Lap 7 17 A. CindricTeam Penske 2 Ford 498
+2 Laps
2:38'45.581
2.121 7 18 T. Reddick23XI Racing 45 Toyota 498
+2 Laps
2:38'45.708
0.127 6 19 B. Wallace23XI Racing 23 Toyota 498
+2 Laps
2:38'47.572
1.864 8 20 R. PreeceRFK Racing 60 Ford 498
+2 Laps
2:38'47.923
0.351 7 21 J. NemechekLegacy Motor Club 42 Toyota 498
+2 Laps
2:38'49.033
1.110 7 22 R. Stenhouse JrHyak Motorsports 47 Chevrolet 498
+2 Laps
2:38'56.531
7.498 7 23 N. GragsonFront Row Motorsports 4 Ford 498
+2 Laps
2:38'58.003
1.472 6 24 J. LoganoTeam Penske 22 Ford 497
+3 Laps
2:38'44.779
1 Lap 6 25 C. BuescherRFK Racing 17 Ford 497
+3 Laps
2:38'45.207
0.428 6 26 E. JonesLegacy Motor Club 43 Toyota 497
+3 Laps
2:38'47.780
2.573 6 27 Z. SmithFront Row Motorsports 38 Ford 497
+3 Laps
2:38'47.918
0.138 8 28 R. Herbst23XI Racing 35 Toyota 496
+4 Laps
2:38'49.582
1 Lap 6 29 C. CusterHaas Factory Team 41 Ford 495
+5 Laps
2:38'54.364
1 Lap 6 30 M. McDowellSpire Motorsports 71 Chevrolet 495
+5 Laps
2:38'57.630
3.266 8 31
J. LoveRichard Childress Racing
33 Chevrolet 495
+5 Laps
2:38'58.530
0.900 6 32 T. DillonKaulig Racing 10 Chevrolet 494
+6 Laps
2:38'45.551
1 Lap 8 33 D. SuarezTrackHouse Racing 99 Chevrolet 494
+6 Laps
2:38'48.621
3.070 8 34 C. LajoieRick Ware Racing 01 Ford 494
+6 Laps
2:38'53.043
4.422 8 35 T. GillilandFront Row Motorsports 34 Ford 493
+7 Laps
2:38'46.813
1 Lap 6 36 C. WareRick Ware Racing 51 Ford 493
+7 Laps
2:38'53.738
6.925 7 37 A. BowmanHendrick Motorsports 48 Chevrolet 343
+157 Laps
1:57'26.804
150 Laps 5 38 S. van GisbergenTrackHouse Racing 88 Chevrolet 208
+292 Laps
2:17'51.187
135 Laps 7 39 J. BilickiGarage 66 66 Ford 193
+307 Laps
1:08'54.298
15 Laps 5
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Previous article Denny Hamlin addresses NASCAR retirement questions at Bristol: "No way I'll ever make it that far"
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