Kyle Larson did not let an early denial of a tripleheader weekend sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway deter him from a dominant NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 12.
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led four times for a race-high 277 of 300 scheduled laps. After starting on the pole position, he flexed his muscles at the drop of the green flag and led the first 78 laps. Despite settling in third place after the first stage period due to mixed pit strategies, Larson quickly reassumed the lead by Lap 93, and he proceeded to claim the second stage victory.
Then, after losing the lead to Justin Allgaier at the start of the final stage period with 119 laps remaining, Larson returned the favor by bumping and moving Allgaier out of his path to reassume the top spot with less than 110 laps remaining. During the event’s final restart, with 75 laps remaining, Larson motored away from the field. He spent the remainder of the event keeping the competition trailing by a distance. With the lead in his grasp and no competition lurking within reach, Larson capped off his dominant run with a victory for Hendrick Motorsports in the Last Great Colosseum.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Larson notched his eighth Xfinity career pole position and his third at Bristol after he posted a pole-winning qualifying lap at 126.287 mph in 15.194 seconds. Joining Larson on the front row was rookie Connor Zilisch, who posted his best qualifying lap at 125.642 mph in 15.272 seconds.
Before the event, the following names, including rookie Christian Eckes, Mason Maggio, and Parker Retzlaff, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.
Green Flag
When the green flag waved and the race started, Larson quickly rocketed his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead of Connor Zilisch from the outside lane, and he moved to the inside lane through the first two turns. In the process, Justin Allgaier, a Dash 4 Cash competitor, tried to pursue from the outside lane, but he ended up battling teammate Zilisch for the runner-up spot while Larson maintained the lead entering Turns 3 and 4. Larson proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Zilisch and Allgaier, while Sam Mayer and rookie Carson Kvapil battled for fourth place in front of Sammy Smith and Ryan Sieg.
Prior to the third lap, the event’s first caution flew when Harrison Burton, who was racing in 11th place, fell off the pace through the frontstretch and the first two turns as he had a flat tire on his No. 25 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang entry. Behind Burton, Mason Maggio smacked the outside wall entering the frontstretch. The incident caused Maggio to limp his entry to a halt just shy of entering pit road before it was pushed behind the wall.
When the event restarted under green on the eighth lap, Larson rocketed ahead from the outside lane for a second consecutive time. He then fended off Allgaier and Zilisch through the first two turns and the backstretch to maintain the lead. Larson proceeded to lead to the Lap 10 mark ahead of Allgaier, Zilisch, Mayer, and Ryan Sieg. Rookies Nick Sanchez and Carson Kvapil, along with Sammy Smith, battled for sixth place in front of Jesse Love and Corey Heim.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson led a hard-charging Allgaier as Zilisch, Mayer, and Sanchez pursued in the top five. Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Carson Kvapil, Corey Heim, and Jesse Love trailed in the top 10. Rookies William Sawalich and Taylor Gray, along with Jeb Burton, Sheldon Creed, and Brandon Jones, raced in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Larson retained the lead by within two-tenths of a second over Allgaier while Zilisch, Mayer, and Sanchez continued to pursue in the top-five mark. Larson would proceed to extend his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier by Lap 40 while third-place Zilisch trailed by more than three seconds. By then, top-five competitors Mayer and Ryan Sieg trailed by five seconds while Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, had lapped competitors that were racing within the top-30 mark.
At the Lap 50 mark, Larson, who continued to navigate his way through a bevy of lapped traffic and was lapping competitors racing within the top-20 mark, grew his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier. While Zilisch, Mayer, and Ryan Sieg retained their respective spots in the top five, Larson maintained his large advantage over Allgaier through the Laps 60, 70, and 75 marks.
Then, on Lap 75, the caution returned for a vicious accident that started when Sheldon Creed, a Dash 4 Cash competitor who was racing in the top-15 mark, spun in Turn 4 after he was hit by rookie Dean Thompson. As Creed’s No. 00 Friends of Jaclyn Ford Mustang entry slid to a halt towards the outside lane, he was then T-boned into the left-front area by Brennan Poole, another Dash 4 Cash competitor, as Poole was sliding his No. 44 Macc Door Systems Chevrolet Camaro entry while trying to avoid Creed. Despite the incident that left both Creed and Poole with significantly damaged race cars and out from further contention, both were able to emerge uninjured. Their accident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for 14 minutes.
When the red flag lifted and the field led by Larson resumed to a cautious pace, nearly the entire field led by Larson pitted for service while Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg remained on the track.
With three laps remaining in the first stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Mayer launched ahead from the outside lane and Larson pursued while Ryan Sieg struggled to launch from the inside lane. As Larson tried to reel in Mayer from the outside lane, he then slid up the track, which allowed Sieg to challenge Larson back for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles within the field, Mayer retained the lead for the following two laps.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 85, Mayer captured his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Ryan Sieg followed suit in second ahead of Larson, Sammy Smith and Allgaier while Zilisch, Sanchez, Love, Kvapil and Brandon Jones were scored in the top 10, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Mayer and Ryan Sieg pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Larson, including those who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. As a result, Larson cycled back into the lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 96 as Larson and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Larson jumped ahead from the outside lane and Allgaier would follow suit through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Sammy Smith falling into a side-by-side battle with teammate Zilisch for third place, Larson led the following lap over Allgaier. Larson would proceed to lead to the Lap 100 mark over Allgaier while Zilisch, Sammy Smith and Kvapil in the top five. Love, Sanchez, Jones, Sawalich and Heim followed suit in the top 10 while Gray, Mayer, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg and Austin Hill trailed in the top 15, respectively.
Through the Lap 110 mark, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier and Sammy Smith while Zilisch and Kvapil trailed by within three seconds. With four JR Motorsports’ entries racing in the top five, the top-six spots were occupied by Chevrolet competitors as Love retained sixth place in front of Jones, Sawalich, Heim and Sanchez.
Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to grow his advantage as he was now leading by nearly four seconds. Behind, Sammy Smith, who overtook teammate Allgaier for the runner-up spot 12 laps earlier, retained the runner-up spot over Allgaier while their teammates Kvapil and Zilisch retained their respective spots in the top five.
Another 10 laps later, Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than four seconds over Sammy Smith and Allgaier while Kvapil and Zilisch trailed in the top five by five and six seconds, respectively. With a little over half of the 38-car field still scored on the lead lap amid Larson’s surge to lap those racing towards the rear of the field, Love, Jones, Sawalich, Heim and Mayer trailed in the top-10 mark while Larson led to the Lap 140 mark.
Halfway Mark
At the halfway mark on Lap 150, only 18 competitors were scored on the lead lap as Larson retained the lead by nearly five seconds over Sammy Smith. By then, Allgaier, Kvapil and Zilisch continued to race in the top five ahead of Love, Jones, Sawalich, Heim and Mayer while Ryan Sieg, Dean Thompson, Sanchez, Christian Eckes, Jeb Burton, Austin Hill, rookie Taylor Gray and Justin Bonsignore rounded out the lead lap field.
Ten laps later, Larson’s advantage grew to seven seconds over both Allgaier and Sammy Smith while Jeb Burton and Eckes were about to be lapped by Larson. By then, Allgaier capitalized on teammate Smith navigating through lapped traffic to reclaim the runner-up spot.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 170, Larson, who lapped all but the top-12 competitors, cruised to his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. JR Motorsports’ Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Kvapil and Zilisch followed suit in the top five while Love, Jones, Heim, Sawalich and Mayer were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first and he was followed by Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Kvapil, Love, Jones, Zilisch, Sawalich, Heim and Mayer, respectively.
With 119 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Larson and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier used the inside lane to launch ahead and assume the lead from Larson through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, the No. 7 Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet Camaro entry that was piloted by Allgaier was leading as the reigning series champion led the following lap. Allgaier would proceed to lead with 115 laps remaining over Larson as Sammy Smith, Love and Kvapil followed suit in the top five ahead of Zilisch, Sawalich, Jones, Heim and Dean Thompson.
With 110 laps remaining, Allgaier led by a tenth of a second over Larson before the latter bumped and reassumed the top spot from the former entering the first two turns during the following lap. Larson would proceed to lead by half a second over Allgaier with 100 laps remaining as Sammy Smith, Kvapil, Love and Zilisch trailed in the top six.
Then within the final 90 laps, the caution returned due to the lapped competitor of Mason Massey spinning in the frontstretch after Allgaier steered from the top to the bottom of the track, where he rammed and sent Massey sideways through the frontstretch. Not long after and as the field reduced pace due to Massey’s incident, Sawalich collided into the rear of Zilisch and sustained significant front nose damage that ended Sawalich’s strong run in the top-10 mark.
During the caution period, some led by Jones and including Heim, Mayer, Ryan Sieg, Eckes, rookie Daniel Dye and Anthony Alfredo pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the following restart, with 75 laps remaining, featured Larson jumping ahead from the outside lane. He fended off Allgaier to maintain the lead for a full lap as he led the following lap. As Larson led, Allgaier retained the runner-up spot over a hard-charging Love before the latter started to challenge the former for the spot. With Allgaier and Love continuing to battle for second in front of Kvapil, Sammy Smith and Zilisch, Larson led by more than half a second with 70 laps remaining.
With 60 laps remaining, Larson was out in front by a second over Allgaier while Love trailed by two seconds. By then, Love retained third place ahead of Kvapil, Sammy Smith, and Zilisch while Thompson, Jones, Ryan Sieg and Eckes raced in the top 10 ahead of Heim, Sam Mayer, Daniel Dye, Josh Williams, and Anthony Alfredo.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier while Kvapil, Love, and Sammy Smith trailed the lead in the top-five mark by three seconds. Behind, top-10 racers Zilisch, Thompson, Jons, Ryan Sieg, and Eckes trailed by within five and six seconds as Larson stabilized his lead to more than a second with 40 laps remaining.
As the event reached its final 30-lap mark, Larson retained his lead to more than a second over Allgaier as Kvapil, Love, and Sammy Smith remained in the top five, respectively. With Larson slowly approaching lapped traffic, Larson kept leading by more than a second with 20 laps remaining while a battle for the runner-up spot was brewing between Allgaier and Kvapil.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson, who was navigating through lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than a second over Allgaier and Kvapil, with Allgaier maintaining the runner-up spot over Kvapil. Fourth-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than five seconds, and fifth-place Jones trailed by six seconds. Larson retained the lead with five laps remaining while only 12 competitors were scored on the lead lap.
Final Lap
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who was approaching the lapped competitor of Justin Bonsignore and Zilisch, the latter of whom was the final competitor scored on the lead lap in 12th place, remained in the lead by nearly two seconds over Kvapil as the latter assumed the spot from Allgaier a lap earlier. With the competition providing no final-lap charges, Larson was able to smoothly cruise his way around the Last Great Colosseum for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and streaked across the finish line for the checkered flag and to cap off his dominant run with a victory.
With the victory, Larson notched his 16th career win in the Xfinity Series division, his first in the series since he won at Circuit of the Americas in March 2024 and his first at Bristol since August 2018. The victory was the 26th overall in the Xfinity division for Hendrick Motorsports, the organization’s first victory at Bristol since March 2006, the third for Hendrick’s No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team and the first for crew chief Adam Wall.
Amid the victory celebrations, Larson dedicated his Bristol victory to Jon Edwards, Hendrick Motorsports’ director of racing communications, who passed away earlier this week.
“I just love this place, especially in Xfinity,” Larson said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “You can move around and traffic is just a lot of fun, so [I] just felt like when I could get to traffic, I could get picking people off. Justin [Allgaier] did a good job of hanging with me there that last run. The pressure was on a little bit, but we just had a good enough car to get to the lead, stay in the lead, and be really good in traffic.
“It’s awesome. I wish I could’ve won last night, but just came up a little bit short. Cool to get a win this weekend for Jon [Edwards] and everybody who’s been a part of his life and all that. We got one more [race] tomorrow. It would be nothing better than to cap it off with a Cup win for Jon, all of Hendrick Motorsports. [I] Just look forward to it, have a great car there for tomorrow and just got to execute like we did today.”
Amid Larson’s race victory, Justin Allgaier, who finished in third place, claimed the third Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2025 season and his second of the year. In total, Allgaier has achieved the program’s bonus of $100,000 seven times, including his first of the year in late March at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I’m frustrated at the day that we had just because this place has been so good for us in the past,” Allgaier said. “Obviously, Kyle [Larson] did a great job. I was proud of our team. It’s hard to be upset, but at the same time, our Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet just needed a little bit. Proud of the team. Obviously, winning the Dash 4 Cash is a big deal. [We] Locked three of the four [Dash 4 Cash spots] in next week for JR Motorsports. Those are big steps. I’m excited to get back [to Rockingham]. Historic race track on the schedule. We’ll go have some fun and see what happens.”
Rookie Carson Kvapil claimed the runner-up spot ahead of Allgaier while Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones finished in the top five on the track. As a result of being the top-four highest-finishing Xfinity Series regulars, Kvapil, Allgaier, Smith and Jones will contend for the fourth and final Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2025 season next Saturday, April 19, during the series’ return to Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina.
Jesse Love, Ryan Sieg, Corey Heim, Christian Eckes and Dean Thompson completed the top 10 in the final running order while Sam Mayer and Connor Zilisch rounded out the 12-car field that remained on the lead lap.
There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 44 laps.
Following the ninth event of the 2025 Xfinity Series season, Justin Allgaier leads the regular-season standings by 83 points over Sam Mayer, 109 over Jesse Love, 115 over Austin Hill and 135 over Connor Zilisch.
Race Results:
1. Kyle Larson, 272 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Carson Kvapil
3. Justin Allgaier, nine laps led
4. Sammy Smith, two laps led
5. Brandon Jones
6. Jesse Love
7. Ryan Sieg, one lap led
8. Corey Heim
9. Christian Eckes
10. Dean Thompson
11. Sam Mayer, 12 laps led
12. Connor Zilisch
13. Daniel Dye, one lap down
14. Josh Williams, one lap down
15. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down
16. Nick Sanchez, one lap down
17. Justin Bonsignore, two laps down
18. Parker Retzlaff, two laps down
19. Taylor Gray, two laps down
20. Jeremy Clements, two laps down
21. Jeb Burton, two laps down
22. Kyle Sieg, two laps down
23. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down
24. Austin Hill, two laps down
25. Mason Massey, three laps down
26. Harrison Burton, four laps down
27. Ryan Ellis, five laps down
28. Thomas Annunziata, six laps down
29. Garrett Smithley, six laps down
30. Blaine Perkins, six laps down
31. Kris Wright, seven laps down
32. Greg Van Alst, 10 laps down
33. CJ McLaughlin, 11 laps down
34. William Sawalich – OUT, Accident
35. Alex Labbe – OUT, Power
36. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident
37. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident
38. Mason Maggio – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ return to Rockingham Speedway for the North Carolina Education Lottery 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, April 19, and air at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
