By the Numbers: Breaking Down Kyle Larson's Bristol Beatdown
The field had absolutely no chance against Kyle Larson in Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, as the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro put a beatdown on the NASCAR Cup Series field, leading 92.4% of the laps.
Along the way, Larson eclipsed several records and put forward several brand-new benchmarks, all of which will be relentlessly chased by NASCAR Cup Series drivers for years to come.
At least the beatdown was quick, with Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race clocking in at two hours, 37 minutes, and 53 seconds, the quickest 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race's average speed, 101.277mph, made it the fastest NASCAR Cup Series event at Bristol, as well, displacing a record more than a half-century old, set by Charlie Glotzbach in 1971.
Uncontested: Kyle Larson Puts on Bristol Clinic
Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway saw Kyle Larson dominate, leading a whopping 462 of 500 laps (92.4%) on the way to his fifth NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2024.
It's the most laps led in a single NASCAR Cup Series event since Kyle Petty led 484 circuits around the 1.017-mile North Carolina Motor Speedway in the 1992 AC Delco 500.
As far as Bristol Motor Speedway is concerned, though, it's the most laps a driver has led in a single NASCAR Cup Series event at the historic racetrack since Cale Yarborough led 495 laps in the 1977 Southeastern 500, 47 years ago.
Larson took the lead for the final time on the 334th lap of Saturday's 500-mile contest, pacing the 37-driver field for the remaining 167 laps of the event. It's the longest uninterrupted stretch for a leader in a NASCAR Cup Series event at Bristol since Mark Martin led the final 181 laps of the event in August 1998.
Shortly after the race's final restart, on lap 338, Larson led circuit No. 300 around Bristol, making him the first driver to lead more than 300 laps in a NASCAR Cup Series event at the 0.533-mile short track since Kyle Busch in 2009.
After another 126 circuits around the 0.533-mile short track (Lap 464), Larson eclipsed the mark of 425 laps led in a Bristol NASCAR Cup Series event, a mark that had been set by Rusty Wallace in 1999, 25 years ago.
Jeff Gordon: Are You Going to Break All of My Records?
Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race wasn't just a record-breaking performance in regards to Bristol Motor Speedway, but also for championship-winning organization Hendrick Motorsports.
The 32-year-old driver from Elk Grove, California continues to break record after record for the most successful team in NASCAR history, to the point where Jeff Gordon, NASCAR legend and Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, came to Victory Lane on Saturday asking Larson if he was going to break every one of his records.
Of course, that is in reference to the record smashed by Larson on Saturday for the most laps led by a Hendrick Motorsports driver in a NASCAR Cup Series event, which Gordon set at Martinsville in 1997 with 431 laps led. The four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion had led 350-plus laps four different times in NASCAR's premier division, the only driver to do so for HMS before Bristol.
Gordon also played a major role in another prominent record that was broken on Saturday, as he, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. combined to lead 443 laps at Martinsville Speedway in 2012, the most in a single-race for Hendrick Motorsports. With Alex Bowman's 34 laps led to begin the event, plus Larson's mind-boggling 462 laps led, the duo set a new single-race high for laps led by Hendrick Motorsports at 496.
No Parity Here: Larson Destroys NextGen Records
Since being introduced to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022, the seventh-generation racecar (known as NextGen) has tightened the field dramatically, making for significantly more parity than NASCAR's premier division has ever seen before.
You wouldn't necessarily know that, though, with the kind of performance that Larson and Hendrick Motorsports laid down on Saturday. Needless to say, that performance has also significantly altered the record books in the NextGen era.
With his 462 laps led from Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Kyle Larson's season total grows to 1,550 laps led, significantly more than any NASCAR Cup Series driver has led in a single-season with the NextGen car.
The victory marks the 12th for the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro in the last three seasons, which now officially breaks a tie with William Byron for the most victories in the seventh-generation racecar.
Larson's out-of-this-world showing on Saturday wasn't just about the number of laps led, finishing more than seven seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott at the end of the race and only 10 drivers finishing on the lead lap.
His dominant performance didn't stop there, as the Margin of Victory (MOV) to teammate Chase Elliott clocked in at over seven seconds, the largest in the three-season history of the seventh-generation racecar.
The 7.088-second margin of victory in Saturday's event was the largest in the history of the NextGen car, beating out Christopher Bell's dominant victory from Phoenix Raceway earlier in the season where the No. 20 won by five-plus seconds.
JOSEPH SRIGLEY