The first elimination race of the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs took place Saturday night (9/21) at Bristol Motor Speedway and Kyle Larson showed out with the most dominant race of his career.
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race ended the Round of 16 and ended the championship hopes of four Playoff drivers. Normally when NASCAR races under the lights on a short track, there are plenty of fireworks during the race. However, this was a very tame race overall when it came to beating and banging.
There were only five yellow flags during the race. Two of those were for the ends of stages one and two. Kyle Larson was the winner of both of those stages.
There was very little doubt that Kyle Larson would win the race most of the night. The excitement came in the racing happening behind him through the field. Joey Logano had locked his spot in the next round of the Playoffs by winning the first race of the Round of 16. The remaining 14 Playoff drivers were racing for every spot and point to have the chance to advance at the end of the race at Bristol.
Kyle Larson was the leader for 462 of the 500 laps in the race. That included the last lap to win the race. He became the first driver since the advent of stage racing to sweep all three stages in a Cup Series race at Bristol. The win was his second Cup Series win at Bristol, his fifth win of the 2024 Cup Series season and his 28th career Cup Series win.
Chase Elliott claimed second-place nearly seven seconds behind Kyle. Bubba Wallace took home a third-place finish. See the complete race results for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race here.
Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs and Harrison Burton were the four drivers the ended their race at Bristol below the cut line in the Round of 16. That means their NASCAR Playoffs run have come to an end for 2024. The other Playoff Drivers have their points reset to 3000. Their Playoff Points have been added to their totals and the rankings to start the Round of 12 have been set. See the 2024 NASCAR Playoff standings here.
Up next to start the Round of 12 is the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas Speedway Sunday, September 29th.
By: Buck Stevens
