Kyle Larson owned the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, winning both stages and rolling to his series-best fifth victory this season by more than 7 seconds.
The 2021 Cup champion started second in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and led 462 laps, including the final 167 in a career performance that also marked the most dominant in team history and will look to use the cushion he's built to move on to the Round of Eight when the second leg of the NASCAR playoffs opens Sunday at Kansas.
Chase Elliott was second in a Chevy, followed by the Toyotas of Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell. Wallace, Ryan Preece (seventh) and Ross Chastain (10th) were the only non-playoff drivers in the top 10.
Larson took a big step toward his second title and leads 12 drivers into the second round with 3,047 points, ahead of Bell (-15), Reddick (-19), William Byron (-25) and defending champion Ryan Blaney (-28).
The remaining contenders: Hamlin (3,015), Elliott (3,014), Logano (3,012), Austin Cindric (3,008), Daniel Suárez (3,006), Alex Bowman (3,005) and Chase Briscoe (3,005). Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton were eliminated.
Larson won the spring race at Kansas in the Cup Series’ closest finish ever, nipping Chris Buescher at the line by one one-thousandth of a second, leading 64 laps after starting fourth. He has five top-five finishes in his past six starts there.
Practice and qualifying is noon Saturday and race time is 2 pm Sunday.
