After leading 400+ laps in back-to-back races at Bristol—the first to do so since Bobby Allison in 1972—Kyle Larson picked up his second win of the 2025 season.

Larson led 411 laps on Sunday and moved back into the fourth position on the standings board, and a lot of drivers cut into William Byron’s regular season points lead.

Denny Hamlin brought it home in second place, marking the seventh time Larson and Hamlin have finished 1-2—but the first time Larson came out on top.

A bunch of storylines emerged from the weekend—most of them negative.

Social media erupted during and after the race about the racing quality and tire compounds.

On Saturday, during practice, it looked like the tire was going to wear out and make it very hard to maintain track position for a long run.

However, the warm weather Sunday did not allow for that to happen, and fans were left confused and disappointed.

With the tire unable to wear out, there was very little passing, and the leaders struggled to get to each other’s back bumpers to make a move.

After a long Sunday afternoon, let’s dive into the rather short recap.

RECAP

Alex Bowman was the only one who had something for Larson at the beginning of the race, as he started on the pole.

His luck would eventually turn, and not in a good way.

He blew his engine in stage 3, but led the first 40 laps and collected 16 stage points on the day.

On lap 40, Larson made the pass on his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and that’s where he would stay.

Stage 1 ends and Larson collected the points.

This is the first time that stage 1 has never had a caution at Bristol.

The lone caution for incident of the day came on lap 178.

Shane van Gisbergen spins in turn 2 and collects Cody Ware.

On pit road, John Hunter Nemechek lost a tire that rolled off the back of Daniel Suarez’s car. In a scary incident, Milan Rudanovic (fueler) and Seth Gajdorus (rear changer) were thankfully unharmed after avoiding the loose tire.

Just over 50 laps later, stage 2 ends with Larson winning again.

After a very long green flag run, stage 3 runs caution free and Larson takes home the checkered flag.

Hamlin finishes in second place, with Ty Gibbs getting his first top five of the season.

Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney finish fourth and fifth.

FLAGS OF THE WEEK

My green flag of the week goes to the renewed rivalry between Larson and Hamlin. Now that Larson finally got the best of Hamlin in a 1-2 finish, he took a dig at him in his post-race interview, stating: “Glad to stop his three-peat. We hate to see him win—as I’m sure you guys do, too.” That got a good reaction from the crowd and Hamlin clapped back at him on his podcast Actions Detrimental: ““I’m glad Chandler Smith beat you in the Truck race.” He followed by saying “It’s all good,” and went on to give Larson his props for the dominating performance.

My yellow flag of the week is Bristol Motor Speedway. That was a hard watch on Sunday, not once did I feel on the edge of my seat. How can we fix Bristol? The last two races here have been brutal to watch, both dominated by Kyle Larson. It’s not entirely Bristol either, the Next Gen car sucks on short tracks. I can’t wait to attend Bristol for my first race. However, it steers me away when this car produces races like what we saw Sunday. Something needs to drastically change about it.

My red flag is the racing product from the weekend. I was excited to see the tire wear off, the passing, the bump and runs, and we got none of it. Fans were mislead and it was a very disappointing day. The tire needs to change and get thinner so that it causes more strategy races and exciting moments.

WHERE DOES EVERYONE STAND?

We are 25% of the way into the NASCAR Cup Series season.

William Byron currently sits atop of the standings, with Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Larson lurking.

Joe Gibbs Racing leads the series with five wins (Bell with three, Hamlin two), while Hendrick Motorsports and Wood Brothers Racing account for the other four.

Drivers who aren’t doing too well include Daniel Suarez (currently 27th in standings), Brad Keselowski (31st), and van Gisbergen (34th).

WHAT’S NEXT?

NASCAR takes their only weekend off this year for Easter Sunday. They will be back in action on Sunday, April 27th at Talladega Superspeedway. The race will air on FOX at 3:00 PM EST.

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