BRISTOL, Tenn. — “I think the five was the best.”
Sunday’s Cup Series race at Bristol had a similar tune to the song and dance of the Xfinity Series race. Kyle Larson once again dominated as he won two of the three events at the Tennessee short track this weekend.
Denny Hamlin was the one chasing Larson for most of the 500-lapper as the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet swept the stages and led 411 circuits — the second consecutive Bristol race that Larson has led more than 400 laps.
Finishing second and falling just shy of extending his win streak to three, Hamlin said he only needed a touch more if he was to contend with Larson.
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“Just needed a little more speed … needed to be a little bit more versatile,” Hamlin said. “I thought that the five was able to navigate traffic slightly better than what I was and that was a big benefit. Certainly, I felt like an open race track, I could run with him and was able to catch him there on the second long stint, but I couldn’t navigate the traffic quite as good as he could.”
After Saturday’s practice sessions saw tires cording on short runs, Sunday’s race did not bore the same results as a single set of tires could last over 100 laps before pitting under a green-flag cycle or a stage caution.
With the strategy and pace of Sunday’s race having a 180-degree turn to what the expectation was coming in, Hamlin wasn’t disappointed in how the race played out and instead, was more impressed by the dominance of the No. 5 team.
“You got to give teams their due when they dominate, right?” Hamlin said. “We shouldn’t throw mud on the racing because someone goes out there and dominates. I at least kept them honest for a little while there. They were superior here in the fall and they were superior again today. Sometimes you’ll have that and then someone will hit it. That’s what will happen when you have a really good team and a really good driver.”
Bristol paid dividends to all four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas with Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe scoring top fives while Christopher Bell anchored in eighth.
Sunday marked the first top-five run for Gibbs since Kansas last season and his best result since Michigan in the same year.
After a slow start to the season for the newest JGR pilots, both Briscoe and Gibbs are finding their stride.
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“They’re with a good team. They’re going to have opportunities to run well,” Hamlin said. “Obviously, the 11 team’s run really well and they’ve taken notice of that, and they’ve implemented some things probably that has helped them. We’re nine races in. You probably now can start to see the haves and the have-nots and who’s going to contend for this thing in the long run. And now we get to reset. Everyone needs that at some point. I think it’s come for a good time for those two teams that struggled early in the year.”
Two of the best drivers early this season were by far the two best drivers Sunday at Bristol. After winning Martinsville and Darlington, Hamlin will take a competitive second despite Larson evening the score between the friendly rivals in 2025.
“You got to give them their flowers for performing great and not making any mistakes,” Hamlin emphasized. “They’re on their game, and when they hit it, they’re hard to beat. That was all I had there to run them down and stay close to them. If you put somebody else up front, I think that us and the five go around them. I just think that it was a thing where he qualified well, set the tone early with the pace and never looked back.”