NASCAR: Larson’s Bristol weekend was one for the record books

Kyle Larson won two out of three races during the Food City 500 weekend, just missing the coveted triple that he was seeking. Larson scored dominating victories in the Food City 500 Cup race and SciAps 300 Xfinity Series race, but came up one position short in the WEATHER GUARD Truck Race.

He still managed to grab a record that doesn’t get reset very often. He put the record for most laps led in a weekend by a single driver even further up the ladder by leading 411 laps in the Cup race and 276 laps in the Xfinity race. The grand total of 687 laps is the new NASCAR record for that category.

When Larson climbed from his car on Sunday afternoon he had a huge grin on his face. He clearly has learned the secret to running well at The World’s Fastest Half-Mile. Larson now has three Cup victories and two Xfinity wins at the iconic bullring.

“It’s fun,” Larson said. “I love this place because it is just so high paced and with traffic; just dicing it up and picking the right lines at the right time while conserving your tires. It’s like a 500-lap sprint car race. It just suits me and my style with quick decision making. I just love this place. I think a lot of us do here in this series. Just had another good race.”

He also was smiling because he was able to dedicate the Food City 500 victory to his team publicist, Jon Edwards, who died suddenly earlier in the week. Larson, along with the entire industry were also mourning two others, journalist Al Pearce and Truck team owner Shige Hattori, who also passed away prior to Bristol.

“Jon Edwards meant a lot to the 5 team, and a lot to the NASCAR Industry, too,” Larson said. “Just good to get a win for him. Obviously, we don’t want to be winning for him and his spirit, we wish he was here in person with us. But he is no longer here, so it’s just going to be fun to celebrate and I know he is smiling down on us. We had a damn good weekend, as he would say. A lot of fun, and I can’t say enough about the team.

“We’ve lost a lot of great people in our sport over the last week, so our thoughts are with them.”

Larson had some fun with rival Denny Hamlin, telling FOX Sports’ Jamie Little he was glad he ended Hamlin’s winning streak. Not only did Larson stop his potential three-in-a-row this season but he also took away the Food City 500 crown from Hamlin, who won it last year.

“Glad to stop his three-peat,” Larson said with a grin. “We hate to see him win as I’m sure you guys do too (pointing to the crowd).”