Kyle Larson was unmatchable at the Bristol Motor Speedway last Sunday. He led 411 of 500 laps to win his second race of the season. Although Denny Hamlin was the one driver who came close to edging him out and reaching Victory Lane. But whatever chance he had was foiled by the lapped cars that got in between him and Larson during the closing laps of the day.
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Hamlin spoke about the same on the recent episode of Actions Detrimental. Some of the cars had managed to pass him when they came out of pit road after a late pit stop. But they couldn’t find the speed to pass Larson.
This led to them being roadblocks in Hamlin’s path. He exclaimed, “Really? You’re going to sit between me and the leader when you’re three laps down?”
He followed his confusion up with a mature understanding of what these cars were trying to do.
“They’re thinking, ‘If I can go past the No. 5 because I’ve got fresh tires, I’ll be two down. And then, I’ll stay out when the caution comes out, and I will be one down.’ So, it’s a two-lap swing for them if they can get around the No. 5 and a caution comes out,” Hamlin added.
Unfortunately, their failure to be faster than Larson ended up with Hamlin settling for a runner-up finish. It was the seventh time that the two drivers finished 1-2, and the first time that Larson got the better of Hamlin during such a finish. Notably, they ran in the first two positions at Bristol for 251 laps.
Larson expresses wariness at Hamlin’s racing caliber
In Victory Lane, Larson admitted that it would have been equally hard for him to win had Hamlin been in his position. He said, “If Denny is in front of me, it could be a totally different story and be really hard to pass him, but glad to stop his three-peat. We hate to see him win, as I’m sure you guys do, too.”
The “three-peat” he mentioned was a third consecutive victory following Hamlin’s successes in Martinsville and Darlington. Larson was understandably only too glad at being able to stop his friend/foe from achieving a remarkable piece of history. Although the drivers did not clash physically on the race track, their battle for the championship is turning out well.
Hamlin sits second on the points table and Larson, fourth. If they manage to stay on this track and avoid recurring stumbles, one of them is bound to be the regular season champion.
