Kyle Larson Hits The Jackpot in Las Vegas

The NASCAR Cup Series returned from off-season 3 weeks ago and every week has seen a surprise winner – Michael McDowell at Daytona, Christopher Bell at the Daytona Road Course, and William Byron at Homestead-Miami. The trend continued this past Sunday when another unpredicted winner took the checked flag and clinched a spot in the playoffs.

LAP 1: Kevin Harvick led the field to green after NASCAR’s Starting Grid Formula put him in pole position. Last week’s winner, William Byron, passed Harvick to take the lead on the backstretch and Harvick began to fade through the pack, settling into 12th place.

LAP 20: The #9 of Chase Elliott got around his teammate, Byron, for the top spot and began to drive away.

CAUTION – LAP 26: The yellow flag waved for the competition caution so teams could check tire wear and make adjustments. Elliott had a slow stop, which allowed the #11 of Denny Hamlin to pick up the lead on pit road.

CAUTION – LAP 47: The caution came out for debris on the front stretch. Some teams opted to pit during the stage, but 5 cars stayed out including Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.

LAP 53: An intense, 4-car battle for the lead began with Logano, Kyle Larson, Elliott, and Brad Keselowski. Elliot finally prevailed with 20 laps to go in the stage.

STAGE 1 END – LAP 80: On the last lap, Keselowski passed Elliott and went on to win the stage. Eliott, Ryan Blaney, Hamlin, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 5 and picked up stage points. Eliott had a slow pit stop to repair right sideskirt damage that he incurred on his previous stop. This put Elliott back in 28th position for the restart, while Keselowski held on to the lead off pit road.

LAP 107: The #5 of Kyle Larson passed Keselowski for the top spot and drove away from the rest of the field.

LAP 122: Green-flag stops started with Logano and Christopher Bell coming down pit road for service. Over the next few laps, the rest of the field made their stops and Larson cycled back to the lead with a 5-second gap to second place.

STAGE 2 END – LAP 160: Kyle Larson won the stage and picked up a playoff point for the first time this season. Behind him, Keselowski, Hamlin, Byron, and Blaney completed the top 5. Exiting pit road, Larson held onto the lead with Hamlin in a close second.

CAUTION – LAP 169: The yellow flag was waved just half-a-lap after the restart when Chase Elliott got loose and spun on the backstretch. Elliott made slight contact with the #1 of Kurt Busch that forced both drivers to make lengthy pitstops for repairs.

CAUTION – LAP 178: The caution came out again, just 2 laps after the restart, for the #10 of Aric Almirola whose right-front tire went down and caused him to hit the wall in Turn 1.

LAP 187: The restart saw Martin Truex Jr take the lead while a 3-car battle broke out behind him consisting of Hamlin, Keselowski, and Larson. After several cross-overs and a lot of door-to-door racing, Larson finally pulled away with the lead.

CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 267: Larson crossed the finish line almost 4-seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski to take his first victory since October of 2019. This was the second week in a row that a Hendrick Motorsport driver had taken the checkered flag.

RESULTS:

1. Kyle Larson
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Kyle Busch
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Martin Truex Jr
7. Christopher Bell
8. William Byron
9. Joey Logano
10. Erik Jones
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
12. Austin Dillon
13. Chase Elliott
14. Chris Buescher
15. Ryan Preece
16. Matt DiBenedetto
17. Michael McDowell
18. Ryan Newman
19. Kurt Busch
20. Kevin Harvick
21. Chase Briscoe
22. Tyler Reddick
23. Ross Chastain
24. Anthony Alfredo
25. Cole Custer
26. Daniel Suarez
27. Alex Bowman
28. Bubba Wallace
29. Justin Haley
30. BJ McLeod
31. Garrett Smithley
32. Cody Ware
33. Quin Houff
34. Joey Gase
35. Josh Bilicki
36. Timmy Hill
37. Corey Lajoie
38. Aric Almirola