If you were told that a future Hall of Famer, one of his era’s true greats, ended a long drought at one of the sport’s most historic venues, we know what you’d be thinking.
“Kyle Busch won at Bristol!”
If only.
Not even close, actually. He finished 14th. In reality, it was the other Kyle — Larson — and his Bristol victory was the equivalent of taking a five-shot lead to the nine-hole turn and proceeding to win by 10.
Meanwhile, it was Rory McIlroy who made a golf tournament — GOLF! — look like the final five laps at Talladega. Crashes, near-crashes, penalties … Rory even survived golf’s version of a green-white-checkers finish to finally win his Masters Tournament.
It’s a rare Sunday when golf makes stock-car racing look like a walk in the park. For that, we “blame” Larson and Hendrick Motorsports, a combo that seemingly led 600 of the 500 laps at Bristol (actually, it was only 411, but you get the drift).
They turned 500 laps at Bristol and aside from stage endings, the caution lights came on just once for a minor spin by Shane van Gisbergen, who by now must be dying to make a right-hand turn somewhere.
As we go through the gears we’re not gonna spend a lot of time on Bristol because why would we? We’ll make a Bristol pass-through and move on to other topics — some happier than others — as we approach the Cup Series’ lone off-week of 2025.
First Gear: Forget Kyle Larson, is that Ty Gibbs who dropped by?
For the second time in a month, Larson had a shot at the Kyle Busch Hat Trick — he came one position away from sweeping all three weekend races. He finished second to Chandler Smith in Friday night’s truck race before making sure nothing like that happened Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday, he led 277 of 300 laps to win the Xfinity Race, before doing much of the same Sunday. Overall, Saturday and Sunday, he led 688 of 800 laps. Strangely enough, he didn’t lead a single lap in Friday’s runner-up finish. Wonder if he’s losing sleep over that.
Larson and Denny Hamlin finished 1-2, and it makes sense — before Larson won the last two Cup races at Bristol, Hamlin won the two before that.
In smaller headlines, there’s this: You may have noticed an unfamiliar visitor to the northern end of Bristol’s scoring pylon. “Who is this guy in the No. 54 car?” you’d be justified in asking.
Well, looky here, it’s Ty Gibbs. Remember him? The can’t-miss kid? Yep, the one who started missing and missing big.
After a howdy-do rookie year in 2023, Gibbs was expected to step up in ’24 but instead blended into the scenery before a truly horrific string of rear-field finishes to end the year. Through six weeks of this season, more of the same, but then came a slightly green shoot at Martinsville (13th), something better at Darlington (ninth) and then Sunday’s third-place run at Bristol.
Not sure of the physics involved, but if you can turn the corner at an oval, Gibbs might’ve done it.
Second Gear: Some history about NASCAR and Easter
Easter is the annual visitor who keeps you guessing.
By now, most of you have learned that the Daytona 500 is always scheduled for the Sunday preceding the third Monday of February. Well, Easter Sunday is slightly more complicated.
It’s always penciled in for the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox, which also answers to March 21.
It can move around and, frankly, isn’t even settled on a particular month. Could be March, could be April. This year, it’s a late one — April 20, which is this coming Sunday. Easter’s here-and-there arrivals add yet another complication to the NASCAR schedule makers, and this year, they took advantage of it to do what they used to do all the time: shut down for Easter.
Between 1953 and last year, the Cup Series raced 14 times on Easter Sunday, occasionally due to rescheduling after a postponement. That’s what happened the first time, in ’53 at the old Charlotte Speedway dirt track, when Saturday rain pushed the race back a day.
That race produced the lone big-league victory for an Indianapolis mechanic named Dick Passwater, who finished a quarter-lap ahead of Gober Sosebee.
You heard me.
Third Gear: A weekend for Easter ham and Rockingham
It won’t be a totally quiet Easter weekend. And speaking of blessings, let’s welcome The Rock back to the circus family.
Rockingham Speedway, an hour or so east of Charlotte and just above the North/South Carolina line, was a regular stop — twice a year, too — for 40 years after its 1965 opening. At just a mile long but with high banks and rough asphalt, The Rock was a rugged beauty.
You also never quite knew who would win there. The first Rock winner in 1965 was rollicking lumberman Curtis Turner, while the last one in 2004 was Mild Matt Kenseth.
But in the first decade of this century, Rockingham fell victim to what was once dubbed the modernizing of tradition, as NASCAR combed its hair, bought new clothes and began courting new and/or flashier markets. That’s right, flashier than Richmond County, North Carolina.
The trucks and ARCA returned for a while, but eventually gave way to weeds before a recent revamp has the old gal ready for a long-awaited close-up, which comes Friday (Truck Series) and Saturday (Xfinity).
If by chance you plan to go but haven’t been there in years, be forewarned. There is no more Lob-Steer Inn on U.S. 1 in Southern Pines, but there are a few local eateries closer to the track and, of course, a Cracker Barrel.
Fourth Gear: Sad goodbyes
For a few decades on race weekends, the scene would play out more often than not inside speedway media centers.
Over there in the corner, Al Pearce would make himself at home, quite literally, by kicking off his shoes and credibly clacking away at his laptop.
Up front, the door would open and in would walk Jon Edwards, with plenty to do but always wearing a carefree visage, accentuated by a genuine smile and wonderful temperament that always made you glad to see him. No, it’s not always the case in that room, with visitors and occupants alike.
Family, friends and NASCAR lost both of those men last week.
Autoweek was the final, and longtime, landing pad for Al, whose lived-in appearance somewhat belied his combination of subject knowledge and ability to explain things in wonderful fashion.
Jon’s domain was Hendrick Motorsports, where he handled PR chores for Kyle Larson in recent years but most notably for basically all of Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR career. No way it was always easy, but he sure made it look that way.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
