Daytona Motor Mouths: Darlington, Bristol and Denny Hamlin
The guys talk William Byron’s Darlington run, Denny Hamlin’s win, Chase Elliott’s throwback weekend criticism and NASCAR’s upcoming Bristol trip.
- Kyle Larson dominated the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning his second Cup Series race of the season.
- Denny Hamlin finished second, continuing his recent streak of top-five finishes.
- The Cup Series takes an Easter break, while the Truck and Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway.
Another dominant weekend for Kyle Larson.
No other way to put it.
After finishing second in Friday’s NASCAR Truck Series race and winning Saturday’s Xfinity Series event, he dominated the Food City 500, the Cup Series race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Larson started third and quickly moved to the front, capturing the first two stages on the way to his second win of the Cup season and 31st of his career. He led 411 of the 500 laps.
Denny Hamlin placed second. Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney occupied Spots 3, 4 and 5.
Here are three takeaways:
1. Kyle Larson goes 2-for-3 on weekend sweep attempt again
No, Larson didn’t notch the weekend sweep in his second attempt of the season. But just like his first try at Homestead-Miami, he got awfully close.
That March 21-23 weekend, Larson won the Truck race, possessed a huge lead in the final 10 laps of the Xfinity race before settling into fourth following an overtime restart and collected the checkers in the Cup race.
Larson retook the lead with 60 laps remaining Sunday afternoon when Blaney pitted. Larson also claimed the Cup race at Bristol last September.
“Just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team,” Larson said. “Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun. However many laps of green we ran, there was a lot of fun. I was pretty comfortable with things. Then, Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle and just kind of kept the pressure on from there.
“I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic. Felt like I did a pretty good job there in traffic. Split the middle sometimes when I needed to. So yeah, just a lot of fun. A little bit out of breath. Just so high-paced here. Heart rate is up.”
Larson dedicated his performance to his public relations representative and Hendrick Motorsports’ director of communications, Jon Edwards, who died Thursday at age 52.
2. Denny Hamlin finishes second after Martinsville, Darlington triumphs
Christopher Bell’s 2025 high mark is safe for now.
Entering off two straight victories at Martinsville and Darlington, Hamlin challenged for another at Bristol. He reached the line 2.25 seconds behind Larson.
Hamlin has never won three consecutive races. Bell, who did it earlier this season at Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas and Phoenix, is the only one to complete the feat in the Next Gen Era (since 2022).
“We really did (want the third straight win), but you have to give that team its due and Kyle his due,” Hamlin said. “Just a dominant performance. Looked like a pretty flawless day for them. It looked pretty easy. It was all I had to try to keep up there. Glad we were able to give him a little bit of a run.”
Hamlin’s hot stretch continued, though. He has strung together four top-fives in a row.
“It’s been a great run here over the last month,” he said. “We’ve been really good. Just got to continue this momentum.”
3. Easter break for Cup Series, but The Rock returns next weekend
NASCAR returns to its tradition of shutting down on Easter Sunday this coming week, but it won’t be a quiet weekend for all. In fact, there’ll be joyous noise coming from the southern reaches of North Carolina, roughly an hour east of the Charlotte racing hub.
That’s right, Rockingham Speedway is back in play after a 12-year hiatus. The Rock will be host to the Truck Series (Friday) and Xfinity Series (Saturday) this coming weekend.
Hopefully the Cup teams take some time to relax or regroup, depending on how things have been going, because this is it, the only off weekend of the 2025 Cup Series schedule. And they might want to mix in an extra prayer around the Easter Sunday dinner table, because when they return to work, they return at Talladega.
— Ken Willis contributed to this story.
