While Larson statistically dominated the race – winning both stages and leading 181 of 267 laps – the end of each stage came down to a one-on-one battle between Larson and Reddick.
Larson led the way late in the final stage when a wreck by Corey LaJoie brought out a caution and sent all the lead lap cars down pit road for new tires.
Laron got a big lead on the restart with 27 laps but six laps later Reddick had moved into second and began closing the gap. Reddick got within several cars lengths as the race remained green the rest of the way by Larson edged him by 0.441 seconds at the checkered flag.
Race winner Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro
Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage when he was really fast there,” said Larson, who took his young son and daughter for a victory ride in his No. 5 Chevrolet after the race. “I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I thought it was going to time out to where he was running really hard.
“I thought he and Bubba (Wallace) were going to try to work together and build a run. So, I was happy that didn’t happen. All in all, just a great, great job by this team. Just the execution on pit road, the restarts, all that was great. Cool to get a win here in Vegas again. Swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”
The win is the first for Larson this season and 24th of his career. It’s also the 10th win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Hendrick Motorsports and the fourth consecutive by an HMS driver in the tracks’ spring race.
Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney ended up third, Ross Chastain fourth and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were Noah Gragson, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and William Byron.
Larson now leads the series standings by eight points over Blaney with Truex in third, 14 points behind Larson.
Stage 1
Laron held off a determined Reddick by 0.469 seconds to take the Stage 1 win. Truex was third, Kyle Busch fourth and Hamlin ended up fifth.
Chris Buescher was knocked out of contention early when he lost his right-rear wheel which caused him to slam the wall between Turns 1 and 2 and did significant damage to his No. 17 Ford. The incident also caused the race to be stopped for nearly 11 minutes to make some repairs to the wall.
Stage 2
Larson grabbed…
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