NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway
Food City 500
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
April 12, 2026
Larson Leads Chevrolet with Podium Finish at Bristol Motor Speedway
- Kyle Larson wrapped up a trip to “The Last Great Colosseum” with a third-place finish to lead Chevrolet in Sunday’s Food City 500. The result, which matches his best of the season with eight races complete, was accompanied by a pair of career feats, including his third all-time stage sweep at the Tennessee half-mile. The reigning champion also tallied a race-high 284 laps led to become just the ninth driver in series’ history to achieve 2,000 laps led at Bristol Motor Speedway.
- Earning his third top-10 qualifying effort of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar put together a strong points day – becoming one of the eight drivers to earn points in both stages en route to his second career top-10 finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.
RACE RECAP:
Stage One:
Three of Team Chevy’s double-duty drivers earned a top-10 starting position for Sunday’s Food City 500 – led by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who took the green flag from the sixth position. Both lining up on the outside lane, a masterful start for Chastain and Kyle Larson saw the pair of Chevrolet drivers jump up to the second and third positions, respectively, on the opening lap. Making the pass for second, Larson quickly closed in on then race leader, Ryan Blaney, on Lap 35 as they already began to maneuver through lap traffic. Capitalizing on his track position, Larson made the pass to take the lead 10 laps later to pace his first laps of the race. Confidently making his way through traffic, Larson maintained the top position until a spinning Brad Keselowski brought out the first caution of the day on Lap 61. Larson’s first report from behind the wheel mentioned that his No. 5 Chevrolet was free on entry before approaching lap traffic. Larson was among the majority of the field to make their first trip to pit road of the race. Lining up on the outside lane of the front-row, a fresh set of tires paid dividends for the reigning champion – rocketing back to the lead on the restart. Picking up right where he left off, Larson not only held onto the top position but pulled away to a nearly 2.5-second lead and lapped up to the 28th position en route to the stage win.
Stage Two:
Under the stage break, Larson reported that he was overall happy with the handling of his Chevrolet-powered machine. With no requests for any major adjustments, crew chief Cliff Daniels called his driver to pit road for a routine four tires and fuel stop, and with his pit crew delivering once again, the driver won the race off pit road to regain the top position for the start of Stage Two. Once again proving his strength on the outside lane, Larson found his way back to the command on the restart to begin the next 114-lap run. Able to make it on fuel for the entirety of Stage Two, the majority of the field, including the No. 5 team, made it a nonstop run with Larson holding off a hard charging Blaney to drive to his third career stage sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Final Stage:
Back in a familiar position, Larson found himself on the front row to take the green flag for the longest stage of the race. Quickly facing lap traffic around the high-banked half-mile, a side-by-side battle with Blaney saw Larson lose the lead near the 100-lap marker of the final stage as the driver started to lack right-rear grip during the run. Settled into the third position, a caution with just 23 laps to go saw the opportunity to make a gamble on pit strategy. Only eight of the lead-lap cars opted to hit pit road, including Larson, with Daniels calling for a two-tire stop. Restarting in the sixth position, fresher tires than the leaders saw Larson make a quick charge back to the front to enter into a three-wide battle for the lead with 10 laps to go. Finding his way back to the third position, yet another caution flew to set the race up for an overtime finish. With a tight battle among the top-three contenders, Larson went on to take the checkered flag in the third position to score his ninth career top-five finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver
3rd – Kyle Larson
10th – Carson Hocevar
Chevrolet’s season statistics with eight NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
Wins: 1
Poles: 1
Top-Fives: 14
Top 10s: 25
Stage Wins: 4
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kansas Speedway with the AdventHealth 400 on Sunday, April 19, at 2 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 18th
“The Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Long Beard XR Chevrolet team battled today, and we’ll take an 18th place finish at the end of it. Our Chevrolet was just way too loose for the majority of the day. Richard Boswell (crew chief) and the guys kept making adjustments and we made it better in the last stage. We started to lose front turn in the middle of the corner at the end of a run. The top line probably would have been a better choice on the final restart because everybody just parked, but you never know until it happens. Everyone at RCR and ECR will keep working to make our cars better.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 3rd
“It was just really aggressive, hard racing there at the end. Ty (Gibbs, race winner) did a great job of hanging on with fresher tires behind him. Just proud of this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. We had a great day. (Ryan) Blaney probably had the best car, but his pit crew was putting him behind all day, which allowed us to lead a lot of laps and win both stages. I knew he’d be hard to beat. I was watching my mirror; he’d have a bad pit stop and drive right back up to second with no problem. We were just a little too free to run the pace he was running around the bottom, even on the top, too. All-in-all, we’ll take it – two stage wins and a third-place finish.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 25th
“Not the finish any of us wanted for the No. 8 Bank OZK Chevrolet here this afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway. We battled the rear of the car the entire race, and despite the best efforts of the team, we got a lap down in the third stage and were never able to get back that track position. We’re going to keep putting in the work and hopefully that begins to translate next weekend in Kansas.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 15th
“Overall, it was a really solid day. We stayed on the lead lap all day with long green flag runs. I felt like we had anywhere between a 10th to 15th-place car all day. The track was very tricky with the PJ1. Basically, you just couldn’t really run the top to makeup time. I thought our Chevrolet had pretty good balance on the bottom. We didn’t need that last caution or we could have finished a few spots better. We still came home with a 15th-place finish. It was a big improvement from where we’ve been the last few weeks, so that’s nice to see. Hopefully we can go to Kansas, a racetrack that we struggled at last year, and keep building on it.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage Two.
Finished: 37th
“I don’t know if we kind of just misjudged it, being in Group A (in practice). I thought we were OK in practice, but to start the race, we were in trouble. It’s a bummer that we didn’t get a chance to work on it. I know Blake (Harris, crew chief) and this No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team would have liked some pit stops to try and make the car better and get going back in the right direction. We were just struggling, and then got caught up in somebody else’s mess. I hate it for this team, but we’ll move onto the next one (at Kansas Speedway).”
Bowman on how he felt in the car:
“I felt good. I’m frustrated right now, right? Bristol (Motor Speedway) is one of my favorite racetracks and we just missed it. At the same time, it’s nice to be back in the racecar. I appreciate everyone’s support and definitely thankful to be back.”
We really need one good week to start getting the ball rolling in the right direction again. Honestly, I thought this could be a really good one for us, even after qualifying. I think this is a good place for us, historically, but we just didn’t have it today. Hopefully we can get things pointed in the right direction next weekend at Kansas (Speedway).”
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 10th
“That was the lowest we were all day. Not the way we wanted to end it. We were really good in the long run, but it was really tough to drive on the restarts. Just too loose. I’m happy we had the speed to run top five all day and have a shot at it at the end. Got some nice stage points, so a really good day points-wise. We excel at the intermediates, so we’re looking forward to Kansas next week.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 33rd
“We had a decent day at Bristol Motor Speedway. We didn’t quite have the speed that we needed, and then made a mistake that cost us from there. We’ll take what we can from it, move onto Kansas Speedway next weekend and see what we can do there. Appreciate Roto-Rooter coming on board and being a part of the entire weekend. It was an honor to have them on both cars.”
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