WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Kyle Larson continued his barnstorming campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series with his fifth victory of the season Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen Int’l.
Back at the wheel of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after a two-week break for the Tokyo Olympics that saw him score marquee dirt victories in the Kings Royal at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, Larson made sure to keep the momentum going with his second road course win of the year.
“Another amazing car,” Larson said. “I could tell from about lap three after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we were going to have a car that could win today.”
RESULTS: NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen
Larson ran near the front of the field during the first half of the race, but didn’t take the control of the race until the third and final stage. He was able to bypass leader Martin Truex Jr. during a cycle of green flag pit stops on lap 57, which gave him the top spot for the first time.
Prior to that, he spent several laps battling with Truex and Christopher Bell, who had started at the rear of the field after multiple pre-race inspection failures. Bell had made his way up to second and was battling Truex and Larson for the lead near the midway point of the race.
On lap 47 entering turn one Larson made an attempt to pass Bell for second, but instead the two made contact and Bell spun off course. Bell was able to get his car righted and returned to the fray, but he was now out of contention for the victory.
“I want to say a big apology to Christopher Bell,” Larson said. “I was inside but I wasn’t inside enough, and I didn’t … I needed to have the nose a few feet further ahead, and the angles just caught there in the middle and I ended up turning him. I hate that. I race with him a lot. He’s probably the one guy that I race with the most in all my racing, so hate to turn him like that. We’ve had incredible races together.”
After getting the lead from Truex during the green flag pit cycle, Larson slowly began to stretch his advantage, but behind him a new contender was beginning to emerge in two-time Watkins Glen winner Chase Elliott.
Elliott, like Bell, had also been penalized for multiple inspection failures and started the race from the tail. He also incurred a self-made penalty when he flat spotted his tires and was forced to make an unplanned pit stop at lap 30, which dropped him to the back of the field.
Undeterred, Elliott charged back through the pack during the final green flag run. Coming from more than 10 seconds behind Larson with 20 laps left, Elliott started chopping Larson’s advantage lap after lap.
With 10 laps left Elliott had caught runner-up Truex and drove around him one lap later. By that point Larson’s lead was 5.5 seconds and Elliott was still closing the gap. With four laps left Larson caught a pack of four slower cars and had to work hard to dispatch them.
He did just that within a lap despite making minor contact with the car of Anthony Alfredo, but the gaggle of cars allowed Elliott to chop Larson’s lead down to 2.5 seconds. Now with clean track ahead, Larson needed only to hit his marks as he cruised to his fifth victory of the season.
“Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track, so when I caught those, I think, four cars and got into the 38 (Alfredo) right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and the 9 would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that,” Larson said.
The victory by Larson unofficially moved him into a tie with Denny Hamlin for the regular season point lead. The regular season champion receives an additional 15 playoff points that can be carried throughout the playoffs.
Elliott finished 2.4 seconds behind Larson, ending Elliott’s two-race win streak at the 2.45-mile, seven turn road course.
“I made too many mistakes to get the win unfortunately,” Elliott acknowledged. “Made it too late in the race. Super proud of our team, been kind of an uphill battle all day. Everybody was super prepared coming into the day and our NAPA team did a really good job of fighting. If I hadn’t of let them down there I think we might of had a shot at it.”
Truex finished third after leading several laps and winning the second stage. Kyle Busch was fourth, with Hamlin finishing fifth. William Byron, Bell, Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick.