Many fans have voiced that they were bored by watching the Cup Series race in Bristol on Saturday night. The 500-lapper featured just eight lead changes, four different leaders, 10 cars on the lead lap, and a staggering 7.1-second margin of victory. These aren’t numbers that one wants to see in the parity-inducing Next Gen car. But what can possibly be done against the expertise of Kyle Larson?
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The Hendrick Motorsports driver ran riot at ‘The Last Great Colosseum’ by leading 462 laps. His #5 Chevrolet Camaro was simply unbeatable. Even drivers as skilled as Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell had no choice but to accept defeat at the end of the night. Bell told the press, “I mean, the #5 just destroyed the field all day long.”
SO COOL! ❤️
Kyle Larson took his son Owen for a ride around Bristol after a dominant win. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/kJqyiLGayi
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 22, 2024
Larson’s 462 laps led are the most by a winner at Bristol since Cale Yarborough led 496 laps in April 1977. If that doesn’t reiterate his status as the best of the current generation, what will? It was his fifth victory of the season and the 28th of his career. He has now led 1,351 laps in Bristol – his most in a single track. And, he now enters the Round of 12 as the top seed.
The result was the effect of great work from the #5 crew. He patted their backs saying, “I’ve had a lot of good cars since I’ve come to Hendrick Motorsports, so it’s tough to say (if that’s the best one). But man, that was just great execution all weekend by the team. Practiced good. You’ve got to qualify good; we did that. Yeah, I just had a great car. Thanks to the whole #5 team.”
Christopher Bell left disappointed with a top-5 finish in Bristol
Drivers like Bell are driven solely by the motivation to be a Cup Series champion someday. It is natural for them to be unsatisfied when a fellow driver outclasses them on the track by a huge margin. That’s precisely why a fifth-place finish just didn’t suffice for the #20 Toyota Camry XSE driver.
He told the press, “ I don’t know. It was a top-five run and I’m happy with it. But disappointed that we didn’t have what we needed to get up there and race for the win … I never really got close enough to know where he [Larson] was good. It seemed like he was really strong running the bottom pretty much.”
“Did that all day and drove away from us.” Bell has made it into the Round of 12 as well. He will next battle Larson and the others in Kansas. While he acknowledges the superiority of the Hendrick star, it is without question that he will continue attempting to beat him one day or the other.
