Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Some races are decided on the final lap. Saturday night’s (Sept. 21) Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway wasn’t one of them.
Some races have one driver who’s so thoroughly dominant that the bulk of the racing is left for the rest of the field to settle second place. That’s how the race played out this weekend, with Kyle Larson leading 462 of 500 laps en route to his fifth win of 2023, a Hendrick Motorsports best.
It’s Larson’s 25th career victory and second at Bristol.
Larson took over the top spot on lap 33 for the first time, and from there out, other drivers would lead a total of just five laps before the checkered flag. Larson swept the stages and lapped all but the top 10 finishers to win by a margin of 7.88 seconds.
Larson’s domination wasn’t the kind of outcome fans have come to expect from Bristol, but it’s the kind of performance that just doesn’t allow for close competition at the front.
And don’t forget Ryan Preece. Preece had the best performance you never heard about on Saturday night. The only driver from the Stewart-Haas Racing stable still without a new home for 2025 reminded teams that he’s a wheelman with his seventh-place finish, one of just three top 10s for non-playoff drivers along with Bubba Wallace in third and Ross Chastain in 10th. It’s Preece’s second top 10 in a row, something his team has struggled to do in recent years.
Preece, a short-track specialist, didn’t take home any stage points, but he certainly made sure people knew he was there at the end, taking positions from teammate Chase Briscoe and polesitter Alex Bowman with nary a mention on the broadcast.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
For this year’s spring race at Bristol, Goodyear rolled out a brand new tire that the manufacturer promised would wear out faster than previous compounds. It delivered, providing a tire that made for a wild, unpredictable race as tires showed rapid wear, losing significant speed after as few as 25 or 30 laps early. As teams figured out how to manage them, they lasted a bit longer but didn’t make it a full fuel run without giving up any and all speed.
And it made for one of the better short-track races we’ve seen with the Next Gen car.
Fast forward to the night race, though, and while fresh tires were a definite advantage, tire management wasn’t nearly as important as it was in the spring … and when we’re talking about deciding a champion driver and team, it needed to matter. The quality of the racing suffered, too.
Goodyear and NASCAR said the tires were the same ones we saw in the spring, so what gives?
What happened to tires wearing out? While teams were getting a handle on the tires in the spring, they still wore at a much more significant rate and changed the track as well, leaving marbles as a testament to the falloff. It’s hard to believe that teams learned so much in a few months that they tripled the length of a tire run.
NASCAR did a tire test in the heat of summer with much the same result as the spring race, so while Saturday night’s weather was warmer than March, it wasn’t summer heat either.
The spring race did not feature PJ1 traction compound; this weekend’s event had about a two-foot strip of it at the very bottom of the track, but was that enough to affect tire wear across the entire surface?
Was it really the same tire compound as the spring race? Did the batch of tires used in the spring have a manufacturing defect that caused excessive wear? We may never know, which is a shame, because the spring race was the better of the two this year.
Where… did the other key players wind up?
Pole winner Bowman led a season-high 34 total laps on Saturday, scoring a ninth-place finish. Bowman has struggled with consistency this year, so a strong start and finish do give him a little momentum going into the next round of the playoffs. He’ll need it as he enters the round in 11th place, seven points below a much tougher cut line.
Defending race winner Denny Hamlin didn’t have a car that could compete with Larson. So, wisely, he didn’t try. Hamlin ran a clean, well-planned race and finished fourth, more than enough to move up into the top 12 and, more importantly, move on in the playoffs.
Ty Gibbs, 12th in points entering the race, needed a mistake-free race to stay in contention. Early in the race, Gibbs did just that, finishing eighth in the first stage and racing with the leaders. Unfortunately, a pit road speeding penalty sent Gibbs to the back of the field in the second stage, and he wasn’t able to work his way far enough toward the front to be in contention. Gibbs finished 15th and was eliminated from playoff contention.
When… was the moment of truth?
Gibbs wasn’t the only driver who saw his playoff hopes evaporate after a speeding penalty. His veteran teammate Martin Truex Jr. suffered the same fate after a fantastic first half that saw Truex doing everything right in his bid to move to the next round.
While the playoffs put an emphasis on winning (and a win will assure a driver that he doesn’t have to worry about small mistakes in the rest of the round), consistency absolutely matters.
The four drivers who saw their playoff bids end on Saturday night had a collective best playoff finish of 15th, thanks to Gibbs’ performance. In the opening round, they posted just three top 20s among them. That’s just not enough.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
Round two of the playoffs kicks off at Kansas Speedway. The spring race at Kansas featured the closes finish in NASCAR history when Larson beat Chris Buescher to the line by .001 seconds, which translated into about an inch of front bumper.
Kansas has become one of the Cup Series best tracks in the Next Gen era, and it could provide an opportunity for another playoff spoiler to emerge.
That could be Buescher again, following up his win at Watkins Glen last week, but he’s just one of a handful of drivers with the chance to salvage their seasons. He was eliminated at Bristol, but Brad Keselowski has been one of the best drivers at Kansas, with two wins. Truex also has two wins and a stellar record overall. So does Kyle Busch, and Wallace also has a Kansas win. They’ll put the pressure on the title contenders.
How… did the playoffs shake down around the cut line to end the first round?
Harrison Burton ran as expected, with a mechanical failure only putting an exclamation point on his night. His win at Daytona International Speedway last month was one of the best feel-good stories of the year, with Burton securing the Wood Brothers 100th win. But his season average finish is 26.1, and his playoff performance reflects that.
Keselowski struggled unexpectedly on a track where he has three wins, but he has been inconsistent recently. He started off the season hot but just couldn’t maintain the momentum. RFK Racing is still rebuilding and doing so admirably, with much of the credit due to Keselowski. They just aren’t contenders yet — but they will be.
Gibbs and Truex couldn’t overcome their penalties at Bristol.
That Truex nearly came from a double-digit point deficit to advance speaks more to him as a driver than his mistake did, but Truex hasn’t had a finish better than 20th since Pocono Raceway. His solid first half of the regular season was enough to give him a playoff berth, but he certainly hasn’t performed well enough to contend for a title.
Gibbs made a mistake under the pressure of his first Cup playoff appearance. He’s very young and still needs to learn to contend for wins with the Cup field. He’s not championship caliber now, but he’s only 21. He has time.
Hamlin was in danger after the first two races of the round, but he’s stellar at Bristol and used his experience to run where he needed to. He wasn’t spectacular and didn’t have a winning car, but he was able to run his own race and control his own destiny.
Daniel Suarez had a terrible car at Bristol and lost four laps to Larson. But Suarez ran smart, making the most of the night, and in the end was able to keep Gibbs from gaining the positions needed to oust him by holding Gibbs up just enough to let a few competitors take advantage.
Chase Briscoe ran a fantastic race on Sunday, providing a lot of action while Larson was running away at the front. He’s out to prove that his team, which will close down and the crew disperse at the end of the year, deserves a last hurrah. And he’s given it to them. He may have had a few moments of worry when the points were close, but he controlled his own destiny.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
I guess all is right with the world as a Hendrick Shevolet won!
Now, the real reason, Kyle Larson is really a great driver. If he focused only on NASCAR CUP racing, he might win multiple championships. But I don’t blame him, take on the world. He has the talent.
Shevolet doesn’t have the capital, its parent lacks the capital, to back him.
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 29 – 500 laps / 266.5 miles
Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) – Bristol, Tenn.
Fast Facts for September 20-21, 2024
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 2 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 11 sets for the race(10 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5170; Right-side — D-5206
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,254 mm (88.74 in.); Right-side — 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
left Front — 16 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi;
Right Front — 46 psi; Right Rear — 44 psi
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 5 – 500 laps / 266.5 miles Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) – Bristol, Tenn.
Fast Facts for March 16-17, 2024
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 10 sets for the race (9 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5170; Right-side — D-5206
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,254 mm (88.74 in.); Right-side — 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 16 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi; Right Front — 46 psi; Right Rear — 44 psi
It was the same tires according to the numbers.
I’m shocked at the huge difference in tire pressures between left and right sides.
I’m not sure what the difference in tire wear was, either. Weather? Traction compound?
Notice the difference in circumference which will not change with tire pressure! These are not bias ply which balloon with more pressure to change the stagger.
What a lousy/boring race. I didn’t’ even watch the last 100 laps. I zipped through the last 100 laps to see the post race interviews. I’m sure NASCAR was happy because their golden boy, favorite team owner and manufacturer dominated, and stunk up the show.
I thought Chase Elliott was the golden boy? And when Joe Gibbs wins the fans claim Gibbs paid off NASCAR.
Whatever. I believe it’s K Larson and if you check the stats you’ll find that Hendrick has won just about 50% of the championships and chevy has won over 50% of the championships during the last 30 years.
I don’t know if he’s the “golden boy” or not, but he definitely put a hard spankin’ on the field on Saturday.
That’s for sure. He stunk up the show, there’s no doubt about that.
I was glad to see a race that didn’t feature multiple late race cautions and a GWC finish as has become somewhat common lately.