Kyle Larson stomped the competition by storm and capped off a dominant run with an emotional NASCAR Cup Series victory for the Hendrick Motorsports organization in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 13.
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led twice for a race-high 411 of 500 scheduled laps in an event where he started in third place and led for the first time on Lap 40 after he overtook his teammate and pole-sitter Alex Bowman. Larson would then proceed to lead through Lap 389, where he swept the event’s first two stage periods in the process.
Then, within the final 110 laps of the event, Larson surrendered the lead for the first time to pit along with a bevy of his fellow competitors under green. Despite cycling out inside the top 10 on the track while a handful of names led by Ryan Blaney were trying to stretch their fuel tank as long as possible, the Californian would cycle back on the lead lap with 62 laps remaining before he returned atop the leaderboard two laps later.
Larson, mired in lapped traffic, lapped all but eight competitors, never looked back as he beat runner-up finisher Denny Hamlin by more than two seconds to notch his second Cup victory of the 2025 season and dedicate his victory to a communications/public relations veteran behind the NASCAR spotlight, the late Jon Edwards.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, April 12, Alex Bowman sped to his second Cup pole position of the 2025 season and the seventh of his career with a pole-winning lap at 128.675 mph in 14.912 seconds. Joining Bowman on the front row was Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the latter of whom clocked in his best qualifying lap at 128.563 mph in 14.925 seconds.
Prior to the event, Joey Logano and John Hunter Nemechek dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
Stage 1
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Alex Bowman quickly muscled his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet entry ahead from the outside lane. He then transitioned to the inside lane in front of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., which enabled him to retain the lead for a full lap around the Last Great Colosseum. As Bowman led the first lap, Stenhouse followed suit in second along with Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. With the field behind jostling for early spots, Bowman proceeded to lead to the fifth lap mark.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Bowman was leading by two-tenths of a second over Stenhouse while Hamlin, Larson and Ryan Blaney pursued in the top five. Behind, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar and Chase Briscoe followed suit from sixth to eighth, respectively, while Ty Gibbs, trapped on the outside lane and slowly losing spots, was back in ninth place ahead of Ty Dillon, Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley, AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell.
Fifteen laps later, Bowman stabilized his early advantage to two-tenths of a second over Stenhouse while Hamlin, Larson and Blaney continued to pursue in the top five. Bell, Hocevar, Briscoe, Haley and Ty Dillon were racing in the top-10 mark. Gibbs, who lost a bevy of spots early, managed to move back in line towards the inside lane. However, Gibbs was mired in 13th place behind Berry and Keselowski. Tyler Reddick, who barely slid through the first two turns, was mired in 19th place between Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch. Newcomer Jesse Love was running in 23rd place behind William Byron.
Another 10 laps later, Bowman continued to lead by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Justin Haley while Hamlin, Larson and Stenhouse pursued in the top five. Larson, however, would then emerge as the new leader by the Lap 40 over teammate Bowman as the former used the outside lane to rocket past the latter through the frontstretch. By then, Blaney, Bell, Hocevar, Briscoe and Keselowski occupied the top-10 spots as Larson started to stretch his advantage beyond half a second.
At the Lap 50 mark and with tire wear becoming a concern for select teams, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over runner-up Haley and by more than two seconds over third-place Hamlin while Bowman and Stenhouse continued to trail in the top five. Larson, who would encounter no tire wear issues over his next 10 laps, retained the lead by more than a second over Haley while Hamlin, Bowman and Stenhouse retained their respective spots in the top five.
Meanwhile, Joey Logano, who started at the rear of the field, was up to 27th place behind Ross Chastain and rookie Riley Herbst. Bubba Wallace was up in 13th place and teammate Reddick was in 16th place in front of Chase Elliott. William Byron was mired in 20th place in front of Austin Dillon. Kyle Busch, and Jesse Love had dropped to 33rd place in front of John Hunter Nemechek.
Towards the Lap 75 mark, Larson, though mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by one-and-a-half seconds. Haley, Hamlin, Bowman, Stenhouse, Hocevar, Blaney, Bell, Keselowski and Ty Gibbs all trailed in the top 10, respectively. Not long after, Hamlin overtook Haley for the runner-up spot.
By Lap 90, Larson was leading by within a second over Hamlin. By then, select names that included Chris Buescher, Nemechek, Jesse Love, Corey LaJoie, Cole Custer, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Cody Ware and Josh Bilicki were lapped. With more names that included Noah Gragson, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and Todd Gilliland also being lapped, Larson, who would pursue Joey Logano to lap him, would extend his advantage back up to two seconds at the Lap 100 mark. Meanwhile, top-five competitors Haley, Bowman and Stenhouse trailed the lead by three to five seconds.
On Lap 110, Larson, who lapped Logano two laps earlier and continued to be on cruise control at the front, stabilized his lead to more than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Haley trailed the lead by nearly five seconds. Larson would then encounter a challenge lapping Ryan Preece, who was in 25th place and refused to let Larson drive away, just past the Lap 115 mark. This allowed Hamlin to decrease Larson’s advantage to within and less than a second by Lap 120. Logano, meanwhile, was sandwiched between the top two competitors of Larson and Hamlin.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 125, Larson, who managed to lap both Preece and Michael McDowell two laps earlier, captured his third Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Hamlin settled in second ahead of Haley, Bowman and Hocevar while Bell, Blaney, Stenhouse, Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, Preece, who was in 24th place, managed to fend off McDowell and Logano to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down, which enabled him to receive the free pass and cycle back on the lead lap during the first stage break period.
Under the first stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Larson, whose entry was being serviced by a quartet of new pit crew members that came from Justin Haley’s No. 7 team, exited first ahead of Hamlin while Haley, Bowman, Hocevar, Ty Gibbs, Bell, Stenhouse, Blaney and Chase Briscoe followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch and Shane van Gisbergen were both penalized for speeding on pit road. Austin Cindric was also penalized for pitting outside his pit box.
Stage 2
The second stage period started on Lap 142 as Larson and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Larson rocketed his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entry away from the field from the outside lane while the inside lane, led by Hamlin, struggled to launch. Hamlin’s restart issue allowed Spire Motorsports’ Haley and Hocevar to navigate up into the top-three spots while teammate Ty Gibbs challenged Hamlin for more. As Larson led the following lap, Hocevar overtook teammate Haley for the runner-up spot while Bowman challenged Gibbs for fifth place.
Just past the Lap 150 mark and with a series of on-track battles ensuing around the Last Great Colosseum, Larson, who was clocking in fast lap times on his fresh tires, was leading ahead of Haley, Hamlin, Hocevar and Bowman while Bell, Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Allmendinger and Stenhouse followed suit in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Keselowski, who made contact with Bubba Wallace in Turns 3 and 4 before he then briefly checked up and was hit in the rear by Chase Elliott, was slated in 13th place behind Briscoe and Wallace while Elliott and Reddick occupied the top-15 spots.
By Lap 165, Larson grew his advantage up to seven-tenths of a second over runner-up Haley as Hamlin, Hocevar and Bowman trailed in the top five. Bell, Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Allmendinger and Briscoe would race in the top 10 ahead of Stenhouse, Wallace, Keselowski, Elliott and Reddick while Austin Dillon, Byron, Chastain, Zane Smith and Berry were mired in the top 20 ahead of Ty Dillon, Kyle Busch, Cindric, Preece and Nemechek, respectively.
Through Lap 175, Larson, who was starting to lap competitors racing towards the rear of the field, extended his advantage to a second over Haley, Hamlin and Hocevar while fifth-place Bell and sixth-place Ty Gibbs trailed by two seconds. Then two laps later, the caution flew when Shane van Gisbergen, who was two laps down and racing outside the top-30 mark, got loose underneath Cody Ware entering the first two turns and slipped up the track as both spun and hit the outside wall. The incident left van Gisbergen sitting backwards against the wall before he nursed his damaged No. 88 Safety Culture Chevrolet entry back to his pit stall.
During the recent caution period, some of the drivers, including Blaney, Stenhouse, Wallace, Keselowski, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Chastain, Zane Smith, Kyle Busch, Ty Dillon, Cindric, Suarez and Nemechek pitted their respective entries. The rest, led by Larson, including most of the front-runners, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Nemechek had a wheel roll out from his entry and hit Suarez’s entry as Suarez was pitting for service.
At the time of the impact, two of Suarez’s crew members just avoided being hit by the tire. Ultimately, Suarez was penalized for a tire rolling out of his pit box. In addition, McDowell was penalized for speeding on pit road.
The start of the next restart on Lap 188 featured Larson rocketing away from Hamlin to maintain the lead as Hamlin held off Haley and Bowman to retain the runner-up spot. Then, just past the Lap 190 mark, teammate Bowman challenged and overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Haley dropped to fifth place as Bell moved up to fourth place. Meanwhile, Blaney, who pitted for fresh tires, carved his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry up to 10th place as Hocevar proceeded to overtake teammate Haley for fifth place.
At the Lap 200 mark, Larson was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bowman while Hamlin, Bell, and Hocevar trailed in the top five ahead of Haley, Ty Gibbs, Briscoe, Reddick and Blaney, respectively. By then, Byron, Allmendinger, Berry, Wallace and Stenhouse occupied the top-15 spots while Elliott, Austin Dillon, Chastain, Zane Smith and Cindric were in the top 20.
Fifteen laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Bowman and Hamlin while top-five racers Bell and Hocevar trailed by three seconds. Haley and Gibbs, both of whom raced in the top-seven mark, trailed the lead by four seconds, eighth-place Briscoe trailed by five seconds and the trio of Blaney, Reddick and Byron trailed by six seconds. As Larson started to approach lapped traffic, he would continue to lead by two seconds at the Lap 225 mark.
Just past Lap 235, Larson continued to lead by more than two seconds over teammate Bowman, Bell and Hocevar while top-seven competitors Hamlin, Haley and Gibbs trailed by less than four seconds. Ten laps later, Hamlin and Haley would navigate past Gibbs for fifth and sixth, respectively, on the track as Larson kept leading by more than two seconds.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Larson cruised to his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2025 season and his second straight in the Bristol event. Teammate Bowman, who slightly cut the deficit to under two seconds, was in second place. Bell, Hocevar, Hamlin, Haley, Gibbs, Blaney, Briscoe and Reddick scored in the top 10, respectively.
By then and ironically, Preece, who was strapped in 24th place, received the free pass as the first competitor who was scored a lap down, just like in the first stage period.
During the second stage break, the lead lap field, led by Larson, returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Larson exited first ahead of teammate Bowman while Hamlin, Bell, Gibbs, Hocevar, Briscoe, Haley, Blaney and Reddick followed suit, respectively.
With 235 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Larson and Bowman occupied the front row. At the start, Larson rocketed ahead with another strong start from the outside lane. He maintained the lead for a full lap while Hamlin navigated his way into the runner-up spot over Bowman. Behind Hamlin’s teammates, Bell and Ty Gibbs battled for fourth place before Bell slipped up the track through the first two turns.
Bell would keep his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE entry racing straight despite dropping to sixth place while Gibbs moved up to fourth. In the process, Hocevar navigated his way into fifth place while Haley, Blaney, Byron, Briscoe and Reddick pursued within the top-11 mark.
With 220 laps remaining, Larson was leading by half a second over Hamlin and by nearly a second over teammate Bowman while Gibbs, Hocevar, Blaney, Bell, Byron, Haley and Briscoe were racing in the top 10 ahead of Reddick, Allmendinger, Chastain, Berry and Wallace, respectively.
Ten laps later, Larson’s lead grew to nearly two seconds over Hamlin while Hocevar and Gibbs battled for third place. Gibbs quickly prevailed to claim third place over Hocevar. Blaney was in fifth place over Byron and Bell, while Haley dropped to ninth place. Meanwhile, Larson led by a second with 200 laps remaining while teammate Bowman, who was racing at the front earlier, had plummeted to 14th place as Bowman reported that he was “Blowing up.”
Down to the final 185 laps of the event, Larson grew his lead back up to two seconds over Hamlin and Ty Gibbs while Bowman, who had dropped out of the lead lap category, was down in 29th place and had faint smoke starting to puff out of his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet entry. Meanwhile, Hocevar and Blaney were in the top five as Larson retained the lead by two seconds with 175 laps remaining.
With 150 laps remaining, Larson stretched his advantage to more than three seconds over Hamlin while third-place Ty Gibbs started to reel in teammate Hamlin for the runner-up spot. By then, Bowman took his car to the garage as Hocevar and Blaney continued to race in the top five ahead of Byron, Bell, Briscoe, Chastain and Haley.
Twenty-five laps later, Larson stabilized his lead to less than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Hocevar trailed by three seconds. Behind, Blaney overtook Gibbs for fourth place while Byron, Briscoe, Chastain, Bell and Haley were in the top 10, respectively.
Then, with 115 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE entry from fifth place under green. By then, select names that included teammate Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric and Cole Custer pitted before more names that included Hamlin, Byron, Briscoe, Hocevar, Allmendinger, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Elliott and the leader Larson pitted within 110 laps remaining.
Amid the pit stops, Hocevar endured a slow pit stop due to his car dropping off the jack prior to the left-side tires being serviced. Following the pit stops, Blaney, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead while Reddick, Wallace, Keselowski and Preece were scored in the top five, respectively. By then, Larson and Hamlin were scored in seventh and eighth, respectively, while only the top-three competitors were scored on the lead lap.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Blaney was leading by more than 12 seconds over runner-up Reddick and by more than 13 seconds over third-place Wallace. Preece and Stenhouse, the first two competitors who were scored a lap down, were in the top five. Meanwhile, Larson occupied sixth place ahead of Hamlin while Zane Smith, Ty Gibbs and Byron were scored in the top 10, respectively. In addition, Bell was mired in 11th place ahead of teammate Briscoe and Chastain, while Haley and Hocevar were mired back in 16th and 18th, respectively.
Twenty laps later, Blaney continued to lead by 15 seconds over Reddick as they were the only two competitors who were scored on the lead lap. Behind, Wallace, the first competitor scored a lap down, retained third place as Hamlin started to reel in Larson for fourth place. Soon after, Blaney lapped runner-up Reddick and the former would retain his full-lap advantage with 70 laps remaining while Larson and Hamlin overtook Wallace to move up to third and fourth on the track.
Then, with 67 laps remaining, Reddick pitted his No. 45 The Beast Toyota Camry XSE entry from the runner-up spot. This kept Blaney as the only competitor who was scored on the lead lap and with the overall lead. Larson, who moved into the runner-up spot, started to reel in Blaney on four fresher tires. Larson would then unlap himself from Blaney with 62 laps remaining and Hamlin would follow suit. Both Blaney and Wallace pitted a lap later. As a result, Larson cycled back into the lead with 60 laps remaining while Hamlin followed suit.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, led by half a second over Hamlin while Ty Gibbs, Briscoe and Byron were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Blaney was back in eighth place behind Chastain and Bell while Reddick and Wallace were mired back in 18th and 20th, respectively. Meanwhile, teammates Hocevar and Haley were strapped back in 11th and 12th, respectively, while Allmendinger and Austin Dillon were in the top 10 on the track.
Ten laps later, Larson slightly increased his lead to seven-tenths of a second over runner-up Hamlin while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by five seconds. Briscoe and Byron continued to race in the top five and Blaney gained two spots up into sixth place while Larson extended his lead up to a second with 30 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson, who continued to be surrounded in lapped traffic, maintained his lead to a second over Hamlin while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by six seconds. By then, only nine competitors were scored on the lead lap, among which included Briscoe, Byron, Blaney, Chastain, Bell and Allmendinger as Larson led by more than a second with 10 laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who hit the outside wall through the first two turns several laps earlier but kept his car racing straight, remained in the lead by more than two seconds over Hamlin. Despite being surrounded by lapped traffic and with Hamlin unable to reel in his deficit, Larson was able to cycle his way around the Last Great Colosseum smoothly for a final time before he zipped back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by more than two seconds over Hamlin.
Victory
With the victory, Larson, who won Saturday’s Xfinity Series event and finished second during Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series event as part of his triple-header weekend sweep attempt at Bristol, notched his 31st career win in NASCAR’s premier series, which kept him in 30th place on the Cup Series’ all-time wins list. The victory was Larson’s second of the 2025 season, his third at Bristol and his first time ever winning the spring Bristol event. It also marked the third victory of the year for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 14th at Bristol for Hendrick Motorsports.
Amid the celebrations, Larson dedicated his dominant Bristol victory to Jon Edwards, Hendrick Motorsports’ communications director and Larson’s former public relations representative who passed away three days prior to Sunday’s event.
“This [win]’s definitely for Jon,” Larson said on the frontstretch on FS1. “He’s just a great guy. We’re gonna miss him, but successful weekend here. [I] Wish he was going to be here with us to celebrate, but I know he’s celebrating with us in spirit. Just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the No. 5 team. Really, really good car. However many laps of green we ran there was a lot of fun.
I was pretty comfortable with things and then Denny [Hamlin] came on really strong there before the pit cycle,” he continued, “I just kept the pressure on from there, so I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic..Felt like I did a pretty good job there in traffic. [I] Split the middle sometimes when I needed to, so yeah, just a lot of fun. The pit crew, this is their first win with the No. 5 team, so it’s gonna be fun celebrating with them and yeah, just good to be back in Victory Lane.”
Like Larson, Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup Series champion and current vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, took a moment to recognize Edwards, who had served as Gordon’s public relations representative throughout Gordon’s racing career.
“It’s been a rough week, I’ll be honest,” Gordon said in Victory Lane. “I lost somebody’s like a brother to me and so many other people that he impacted. The outpour, I just want to say thank you to everybody that has been sending messages, making phone calls, the tribute on the car. Kyle [Larson] was very close to Jon and Jon did a lot for him, so you could tell he was driving with a passion out there. What a dominant performance and this one is for Jon. He would not want the limelight or any of this attention, but I know how proud he’d be of this performance and this team.”
Denny Hamlin, who was coming off back-to-back victories at Martinsville Speedway and Darlington Raceway and had won the spring Bristol event a year ago, settled in second place for his fourth top-two result of the year. Hamlin was pleased with his run despite coming up one spot short of notching a third consecutive victory,
He also took the moment to pay tribute to not only Jon Edwards, but Shigeaki Hattori, the 2018 Craftsman Truck Series championship-winning team owner of Hattori Racing Enterprises who also passed away earlier this past week.
“You got to give [the No. 5 team] their due and Kyle [Larson] his due,” Hamlin said. “Just a dominant performance and it looked like a pretty flawless day for him. It looked pretty easy. It was all I had to try to keep up there. Glad we were able to give him a little bit of a run with our Progressive Toyota. I wish we could have got one more spot, but I just wanted to keep [Larson] honest there at the end.
“That’s all I tried to do, but he just was too much to handle. It’s been a great run here over the last month. We’ve been really good. [I] Just got to continue this momentum and it all starts tomorrow. You go back to work and you figure out how you can get just a little bit better.”
Ty Gibbs, who was coming off a ninth-place result at Darlington Raceway and had recorded an average finishing result of 22.0 through the first eight scheduled laps, capped off a strong performance from start to finish by recording his first top-five result of the year in third place.
“We had a really good, clean day,” Gibbs said. “Really happy to have that. It’s been [a] pretty chaotic start to our year, so I think we’re back where we’re going to run. Really excited for the future and to get back racing after this off weekend. I think we’re really capable of winning a lot this year, so we’ll see what we have, what we can do and still have a fun time, have a blast.”
Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney finished in the top five while William Byron, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, the following names that included Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry, Justin Haley, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, rookie Riley Herbst, Daniel Suarez and Corey LaJoie finished 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 28th, 33rd and 34th, respectively. In addition, newcomer Jesse Love finished 31st in his Cup Series debut while pole-sitter Alex Bowman, who was unable to finish the event due to his late engine issues, ended up in 37th.
There were four lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 40 laps. In addition, only nine of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the ninth event of the 2025 Cup Series season, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 30 points over Denny Hamlin, 41 over Christopher Bell, 42 over Kyle Larson, 68 over Chase Elliott, 71 over Ryan Blaney and 72 over Tyler Reddick.
Results:
1. Kyle Larson, 411 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Ty Gibbs
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Ryan Blaney, 48 laps led
6. William Byron
7. Ross Chastain
8. Christopher Bell
9. AJ Allmendinger
10. Austin Dillon, one lap down
11. Carson Hocevar, one lap down, two laps led
12. Josh Berry, one lap down
13. Justin Haley, one lap down
14. Kyle Busch, one lap down
15. Chase Elliott, one lap down
16. Brad Keselowski, two laps down
17. Austin Cindric, two laps down
18. Tyler Reddick, two laps down
19. Bubba Wallace, two laps down
20. Ryan Preece, two laps down
21. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down
22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down
23. Noah Gragson, two laps down
24. Joey Logano, three laps down
25. Chris Buescher, three laps down
26. Erik Jones, three laps down
27. Zane Smith, three laps down
28. Riley Herbst, four laps down
29. Cole Custer, five laps down
30. Michael McDowell, five laps down
31. Jesse Love, five laps down
32. Ty Dillon, six laps down
33. Daniel Suarez, six laps down
34. Corey LaJoie, six laps down
35. Todd Gilliland, seven laps down
36. Cody Ware, seven laps down
37. Alex Bowman – OUT, 39 laps led, Engine
38. Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Suspension
39. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Electrical
The NASCAR Cup Series teams and competitors enter their lone off-weekend period of the 2025 season before returning to action at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, for the Jack Link’s 500. The event is scheduled to occur on April 27 and air at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.
