William Byron entered Las Vegas as Racing Insights’ top pick to win the Round of 8 race. But fate had other plans. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver seemed ready to deliver until a brutal collision with Ty Dillon, who was slowing to pit, ended his day in heartbreak. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson, a three-time winner at Las Vegas, also came in as one of the heavy favorites.
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Starting from sixth on the grid, Larson dominated the afternoon, leading a race-high 129 of 267 laps. Sadly for Larson, despite his strong form, he came up 1.533 seconds short of Denny Hamlin, who led just nine laps but timed his charge to perfection as he fixed his berth in the Championship 4.
Larson wrapped up Stage 1 in ninth and claimed the Stage 2 win before settling for second at the finish. During the final stage, after the last restart, Hamlin found another advantage, blazing around the track while Larson gave chase. The two went toe to toe, with Larson fighting tooth and nail before finally yielding. In the closing laps, he managed to overtake Chase Briscoe to secure the runner-up position.
After the race, Larson tipped his cap to Hamlin for an exceptional drive. “I thought I had a big enough gap down the backstretch to go to the top, get momentum. His car, the Toyotas in general, were really, really, really fast on a short run, had a lot of speed. He must have nailed the bottom behind me, got inside. It was over from there.”
“Yeah, he did an awesome job. He got up on the wheel there. I felt like I was up on the wheel… I tried to take his line away in three and four. He got to my outside. Rarely do you see Denny do that. He did a great job. Hats off to them.”
Larson praised his No. 5 crew for delivering another strong effort, calling it “an awesome day” and noting their solid points haul. He admitted he wished the Byron-Dillon incident hadn’t happened, as the Hendrick duo had the race firmly in hand before chaos struck. Still, he accepted the unpredictability of the sport, saying it’s all part of the game, and remained upbeat about his finish.
MASSIVE CRASH for William Byron!
He hits Ty Dillon, who was trying to enter pit road. pic.twitter.com/YT3qPCWIt7
— Motorsport (@Motorsport) October 13, 2025
Looking ahead to Talladega, Larson acknowledged the volatility of superspeedway racing, saying he understands that things can completely flip next week. However, he believes his team’s superspeedway results have improved significantly this year. They’ve done really well on those tracks, but he knows one can never expect a good finish or even a finish at all when going there.
“We’ll just try and go and execute like we have been this year at those places. Hopefully, we can have another good points day, and maybe Martinsville will be a little bit easier. I know right now it shows plus 35; somebody below the cut line wins. It’s a lot less. Playoff is crazy,” he continued.
Currently sitting third in the standings, Larson holds a tiny 35-point cushion. But at Talladega, his track record tells a tough story: an average finish of 21.0 in 21 starts, with only three top-five results. Martinsville, however, has been kinder to him, with an average finish of 15.5 and seven top-fives, including a win in 2023.
For Larson, the mission is to keep his nose clean at Talladega, collect a solid points day, and set his sights on another Martinsville win to punch his ticket to Phoenix.
