Larson looking for another Bristol beatdown Saturday night

Kyle Larson is the rabbit the NASCAR Cup Series field is chasing at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team dominated the two most recent races at the Tennessee bullring. Saturday night, Larson seeks his third straight victory at the track. The last driver to win three consecutive races at Bristol was Kurt Busch, who swept the 2003 races and then won the spring race in 2004.

Here is how dominant Larson and his team were in their last two Bristol races:

·      Led 462 of the 500 laps in the September 2024 race, the most laps ever led by a Hendrick Motorsports driver in a Cup Series race.

·      Won the last two races at Bristol after winning both stages in each race and leading 87 percent of the laps (873 of 1,000 – the most over a two-race spread at short track since Bobby Allison in 1972 at Bristol, when he led 903 laps.)

To expand even further:

·      Since joining Hendrick Motorsports, Larson has finished no worse than fifth at Bristol.

·      He’s won three of the last six Bristol races.

“The atmosphere is always up for the (Bristol) Night Race,” Larson said this week. “The night race just means more to me. I don’t know if everyone feels the same way, but I want to win all the races. I would like to win the night race over the spring one if I had to pick one or the other, just because winning under the lights at Bristol is pretty awesome. It’s not considered a crown jewel but in my mind it’s the one I want to win really badly every year.”

Larson led the Hendrick Motorsports contingent in qualifying Friday night, earning a fifth-place starting position. He enters the elimination race as the highest driver on the playoff grid without a victory, holding a 60-point advantage on the cutline.