Kyle Larson may have had an interesting journey to finish fifth in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol. (Photo: Josh James | The Podium Finish)
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Larson may need a few days to process how he finished fifth after a wild and frantic Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
By all means, Larson’s box score performance reads like a typical outing at the 0.533-mile concrete short track. Starting from the 10th position, Larson finished a solid second in Stage 1 thanks to his methodical tire management approach.
Prior to the start of Stage 2, Larson asked Cliff Daniels, his crew chief, about the times he needed to run to remain in contention given the challenges with the tires that befell each team on Sunday afternoon. After getting the lap time ranges needed to manage his track position in Stage 2, Larson netted an eighth place finish, tallying 12 stage points.
Once the final stage of the race was underway, Larson hovered inside the top five with one of the best Chevrolet entires all race long. However, on a Lap 374, Larson was assessed with a pit road penalty for equipment interference when a right front tire rolled outside of his pit stall.
As a result, Larson restarted in 28th position with 120 laps to go. Although Larson and his on track competitors were well within their fuel window, it became a battle of wits and balancing aggression and tire management.
At one point, Larson was in danger of going a lap down while working his way inside the top 20 in the final 100 laps. Eventually pitting from the 18th position, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 suddenly found himself climbing up the leaderboard in the final 50 laps.
Leading on four occasions for 19 laps, Kyle Larson trudged on to a fifth place finish at Bristol. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Returning to the top five in the final 30 laps, Larson treaded the fine line between chasing down the Joe Gibbs duo of Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. and not cording his right front tire.
Although Alex Bowman, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, scooted past him for fourth inside the final five laps, the Elk Grove, California, native placed fifth in the 500-lap race.
All in all, Larson will take the top five result given what could have been had a caution ensued while he was trapped two laps down.
“Yeah, it was tough.. tough to get a rhythm,” Larson said. “I felt like I was kind of in a rhythm when I could run around fourth to sixth behind the Gibbs cars and kind of pace myself. I felt like I was doing a good job of managing my stuff, we just never got a long run. And then the one time we get a long run is when we had the penalty and we had to go to the back, and abuse my tire to get back to the top-five.
“It all just kind of weirdly worked out. I still don’t really know how we ended fifth, but we will take it and move on.”
Naturally, Larson ruminated over what could have been had the Lap 374 pit penalty not occurred as the last 120 laps went caution-free.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “Obviously, I would have loved to not get that penalty because I felt like I could pace the 11 well, and I thought I could manage my tires good. He would have been hard to beat, but we could have ended up a little bit better and we could have ended up worse. So, yeah, I think I will take the fifth and be happy with it.”
Perhaps a bit of St. Patrick’s Day luck was on Kyle Larson’s side with a fifth place finish at Bristol. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Then again, the name of the game at Bristol was about survival at a track typically known for stock car mayhem and carnage. Resembling a race seen in the late model ranks or a tenacious Darlington or Rockingham, Larson scored a strong result that rewarded him with a share of the points lead with Truex.
“Yeah, it was weird. It was definitely interesting,” Larson said to FOX NASCAR‘s Regan Smith. “I thought, eventually maybe some rubber would get laid down. But I would say after the second pit stop, I think we all realized it was not going to be the case. And we were just going to have to manage and I felt like I was doing a good job managing. We just never got a long run.
“Then, finally, we got the long run. And we had the penalty. And I had to go to the back and abuse my right front to cords and kind of rode around. Then yea, just pitted and accidentally finished fifth. I don’t really know what happened for us to cycle so many positions ahead. I’ll take it. I hope I’ll never have to run another race like that again. It was kind of fun just to do it hopefully one time.”
