Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Some races are decided on the final lap. Saturday night’s (Sept. 21) Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway wasn’t one of them.
Some races have one driver who’s so thoroughly dominant that the bulk of the racing is left for the rest of the field to settle second place. That’s how the race played out this weekend, with Kyle Larson leading 462 of 500 laps en route to his fifth win of 2023, a Hendrick Motorsports best.
It’s Larson’s 25th career victory and second at Bristol.
Larson took over the top spot on lap 33 for the first time, and from there out, other drivers would lead a total of just five laps before the checkered flag. Larson swept the stages and lapped all but the top 10 finishers to win by a margin of 7.88 seconds.
Larson’s domination wasn’t the kind of outcome fans have come to expect from Bristol, but it’s the kind of performance that just doesn’t allow for close competition at the front.
And don’t forget Ryan Preece. Preece had the best performance you never heard about on Saturday night. The only driver from the Stewart-Haas Racing stable still without a new home for 2025 reminded teams that he’s a wheelman with his seventh-place finish, one of just three top 10s for non-playoff drivers along with Bubba Wallace in third and Ross Chastain in 10th. It’s Preece’s second top 10 in a row, something his team has struggled to do in recent years.
Preece, a short-track specialist, didn’t take home any stage points, but he certainly made sure people knew he was there at the end, taking positions from teammate Chase Briscoe and polesitter Alex Bowman with nary a mention on the broadcast.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
For this year’s spring race at Bristol, Goodyear rolled out a brand new tire that the manufacturer promised would wear out faster than previous compounds. It delivered, providing a tire that made for a wild, unpredictable race as tires showed rapid wear, losing significant speed after as few as 25 or 30 laps early. As teams figured out how to manage them, they lasted a bit longer but didn’t make it a full fuel run…
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