Bristol Motor Speedway is known for being one of the toughest tracks on the circuit – rookie or not. Some of the rookies had a rough go at it – even a discussion of toilet paper broke out – while others, managed to survive. Larson and Dillon are showing early that they’re leading the rookie class this year, as expected.
Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon
Finished: 10th and 11th
Both Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon had a solid run at Bristol Motor Speedway – in different ways.
Larson was strong all race long, running inside the top five in the middle part of the race, as high as the second position. Larson has been strong at Bristol in the past – a pair of second place finishes in the Nationwide Series to date – so having a shot to win on Sunday night was not a surprise to many fans. Larson had a legitimate shot to win but with 76 laps to go, he chose to pit while Edwards and other stayed out.
“There at the end maybe we pitted when we shouldn’t have and then it was tough to pass,” he commented. “It’s really actually exciting to be a little bit disappointed in a top-10 finish in the Cup Series. Like I said, this series is really competitive and hard to do well in. I thought we had a top-five race going for sure and ended up 10th.”
This marked Larson’s first top 10 finish this season. Larson commented on Tuesday that he’s been quick each week, but has made mistakes resulting in poor finishes. Find out what else Larson said by clicking here.
Meanwhile, Austin Dillon took the conservative approach as he ran quietly just outside of the top 10 all race long, staying out of trouble on his way to finishing 11th.
“It was a solid effort by everyone on the Realtree/Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet team today,” Dillon commented post-race. “I really wish we could have gotten the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) and passed him for one more position at the end of the race so we could have finished inside of the top-10, and earned Rookie of the Race honors. But overall, we really have to be happy with a performance like that our first time out in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway.”
Justin Allgaier
Finished: 17th
Justin Allgaier ran a clean race throughout the evening, avoiding trouble on his way to finishing 17th. While it may not mean much, it is a solid run for the single-car team owned by Harry Scott. Top 20 finishes for Allgaier this rookie season are a relative goal given his Nationwide Series results of past and the team that he is with.
Michael Annett
Finished: 26th
Unfortunately, Michael Annett would have a poor run for Tommy Baldwin Racing as he finished three laps down. Annett got lapped early in the event by the leaders, and then fell additional laps down when he pitted under green and a caution flew.
Alex Bowman
Finished: 32nd
Alex Bowman found himself multiple laps down following an incident when the battery fell out of his car and on to the race track. If there’s any good news, the young driver gained some twitter followers and exposure by the discussion that ensued. When the battery fell out, it left a trail of a white cloth – which is used to keep the battery tucked in it’s position. However, with how it fell out and caught on other cars, it started a flew of jokes surrounding “toilet paper” and teepeeing as it had the same look. As nascarasm put it, Bowman is now the ‘Charmin King’.
Parker Kligerman
Finished: 34th
Parker Kligerman wasn’t able to change his luck, unfortunately, with another poor finish. Kligerman go caught up in a wreck in practice with Danica Patrick, which the team worked hard to repair the car afterwards. Kligerman looked to be okay at the start of the race and perhaps headed towards a decent finish, when he’d run over the battery that fell out of Bowman’s car. As a result, it caused the steering column to shift and struggles for the rest of the night.
Ryan Truex
Finished: 42nd
Ryan Truex also didn’t have any good luck at Bristol as a crash took him out of the race on lap 271 of 500, ending his night early.
Next up: Auto Club Speedway
If you look back at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it was Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson that led the way with solid runs. Expect the same as they’re both with top notch organization. For the rest of the crop, a solid top 20 finish could be huge for any of them with the smaller organizations that they are competing with following their start to the year. Of this, California is the city of dreams so perhaps the rookies will be California Dreaming when the race is done.
