In the 90s, the Bristol night race became legendary in no small part thanks to close, high-contact races between the best drivers of the era. The track has since been reconfigured twice and maligned as a shadow of itself. This year, efforts to revive the track's event status led to a questionable experiment in covering the surface with dirt for one of its two scheduled races. In the second, the night race, the track reminded us all why it was once legendary. Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott all played a part the decisive final run to the win, but it was Kyle Larson that came out on top in a full-contact battle of some of stock car racing's very best.
The contact started early. Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin were hitting each other in a battle for second just 60 laps into the race, a pattern that would continue as the day went on and a seemingly endless stream of lap traffic made every pass more difficult. Hamlin won the first stage, Larson won the second, and the top four went into the decisive final stage having avoided a few mid-field wrecks that led to a quick red flag. Then they became the ones creating the incidents.
The first big moment was between Larson and Hamlin. In a battle for the lead, Hamlin hit his right-front corner directly on Larson's left-rear at an angle that created bodywork contact with both of their tires. Hamlin's tire blew, sending him straight into the wall. Larson carried on with his damaged, but not destroyed, tire.
Then it happened again.
This time, the combatants were Harvick and Elliott in a battle for the lead. Harvick ran next to a lapped car, seemingly using the other car to force Elliott to abandon his momentum. When Elliott cleared the car anyway, Harvick washed up the track. He shoved the No. 9 of Elliott into the wall, blowing one of Elliott's tires and forcing him to pit.
That was the moment Harvick's race turned, too. Although he maintained his lead, the problem he created for Chase Elliott actually put the No. 9 right back in his sights after a stop for the flat tire. The still-fast Elliott actually hit Harvick and passed him on the race track, then held up Harvick's No. 4 as lapped traffic while his teammate Kyle Larson caught back up. Larson then saw a window to win and took it, swinging aggressively down below and then back up above Harvick with 3 to go. He then easily cleared his teammate and won the race.
While he celebrated post-race, Harvick and Elliott feuded through all of a post-race bump, a pit lane conversation, separate heated post-race interviews, and a second conversation in the garage area. Both left the track without sharing what was said in that second conversation, but we can safely assume that the subject was a mutual anger over Harvick's questionable move that led to Elliott's blown tire and Elliott's questionable blocks as lapped traffic shortly afterward.
But in this championship format, a win for an elite team in the Round of 16 is little more than a formality. A nice battle for Harvick, Elliott, Hamlin, and Larson, but all four are shoe-ins for the Round of 12 and should be considered real contenders for the Championship Four. The real consequences were behind the leaders.
Michael McDowell was effectively eliminated pre-race by two poor races to open the round. His miracle win did not come, so it was a battle to clear the final three elimination spots for the rest of the playoff field. Kurt Busch was a net seven or eight points back the entire final stint, so he had no real window to make the playoffs without a final caution. That left Aric Almirola, William Byron, and Tyler Reddick in a three-way asynchronous battle for just one spot in the field, all within two points for almost the entire final stage.
Almirola struggled to 17th, unable to win a three-way battle with Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece to get the points he needed. Tyler Reddick finished a quiet 12th, unable to catch Joey Logano for the point he needed. That left William Byron to finish a stellar third, and nearly take second in the final laps. It was a crucial great race for a team that still believes it has championship aspirations; after advancing today, Byron and his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team can still prove it.
Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, and Ryan Blaney join Harvick, Larson, Hamlin, Elliott, and Byron in the Round of 12. The three-race segment is punctuated by high-variable races at Talladega and the Charlotte infield "roval," but it opens with a very ordinary race at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend.
