Larson wins in wild Cup playoff race at Bristol
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Kelly Crandall | September 18, 2021 11:52 PM ET
Kyle Larson took advantage of a late-race spat between Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick to grab his sixth win of the season Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Larson made the winning pass on Harvick with four laps to go. Harvick felt his efforts were affected by
Elliott, who was not in contention for the race win after having to pit for a flat tire. Elliott was forced to pit road with 33 laps to go after contact with Harvick as the two raced for the lead.
Upon returning to the track, Elliott expressed his displeasure with Harvick before driving around him.
Elliott ran in front of Harvick to the checkered flag. Elliott said, “I just ran my line.”More NASCAR!
“That was an awesome race,” Larson said. “It was so cool to be able to race there for the win. Obviously, [Kevin] Harvick and Chase [Elliott] got together. Chase was upset, and it kind of held him up. It got Harvick having to move around and use his tires up off the bottom.
“I started to get some dive-ins working off of (Turn) 2, got a big run, decided to pull the trigger, slide him, squeeze him a little bit. Then he had me jacked up down the frontstretch. It was wild. But I had my hands full. Thanks to Valvoline, everybody that helps on this Hendrick Motorsports car. Beautiful paint scheme. Two wins with it. Thanks to Valvoline. Thanks, Mr. H [Rick Hendrick]. Wish you were here. So cool.”
Larson led a race-high 175 laps. He also won the second stage. It is Larson’s first win at Bristol and the 12th of his Cup Series career.
Harvick finished second, and William Byron finished third. Ryan Blaney finished fourth, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.
“I just told him that it was kind of a chicken (expletive) move that he did there at the end,” Harvick said. “We’re racing for the frickin’ win at Bristol. We’re three-wide in the middle, and he throws a temper tantrum; I was just trying to get the lead and race him hard, and he pulls up in front of me and just sits there until I lose the whole lead.
“I just hate it for our Subway Ford Mustang team to lose a race like that. I watched him let the 24 [William Byron] go by. Anytime you run into him, it’s a problem.”
The winning move 🔥
@KyleLarsonRacin |
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Harvick led 71 laps and was looking to snap a winless streak dating back to the Bristol night race one year ago. He and Elliott continued their disagreement while coming to pit road after the race and confronted each other after climbing from their cars.
“I lost so much there, and then when I got behind (his) car, I kept getting tight off the corner, and I couldn’t run my line,” Harvick said. “God damn, I’m ready to rip somebody’s freaking head off.”
Brad Keselowski finished sixth, Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh, Erik Jones finished eighth, Denny Hamlin finished ninth, and Matt DiBenedetto finished 10th.
Hamlin won the first stage and rallied after a flat tire on lap 399. While racing for the lead, contact between Hamlin and Larson cut a tire, and Hamlin hit the wall in Turn 1.
Joey Logano finished 11th, and Tyler Reddick finished 12th. Reddick was eliminated from the playoffs.
Also eliminated was Aric Almirola, who finished 18th, and Kurt Busch, who finished 19th.
Kyle Busch finished 21st, one lap down. Busch was knocked out of contention after pitting under green flag conditions with less than 50 laps to go because of a flat tire.
Michael McDowell finished 24th, two laps down. McDowell was the fourth driver eliminated from the playoffs.
Elliott finished three laps down in 25th after the flat tire. He led 129 laps.
“It’s something he [Harvick] does all the time,”
Elliott said. “He runs into your left side constantly at other tracks, and sometimes it cuts down your left side, and other times it doesn’t. He did it to me at Darlington a few weeks ago because he was tired of racing with me, and whether he did it on purpose this time, it doesn’t matter. At some point, you’ve got to draw a line. I don’t care who he is or how long he’s been doing it, I’m going to stand up for myself and my team, and we’ll go on down the road.”
On the ending of the race, Elliott said, “I just ran my line.”
There were 23 lead changes among seven drivers at Bristol and eight cautions.