Kyle Larson corralled a compelling sixth victory of the season Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, outdueling a resurgent Kevin Harvick and making the clinching pass with four laps remaining in the annual Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
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Larson notched his first win at the 0.533-mile concrete track and the 12th of his NASCAR Cup Series career. He led a race-high 175 of the 500 laps in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Harvick placed second in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, and had held the lead after a fender-clanging pass of Chase Elliott with 35 laps left. That contact dropped Elliott, who led 129 laps, to a 25th-place finish and prompted a post-race confrontation between the two on pit road.
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William Byron finished third and snatched the last transfer slot into the next round of the Cup Series Playoffs. Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman completed the top five in that order.
The race closed out the opening Round of 16 in the Cup Series Playoffs, and four drivers were ousted from championship eligibility — Aric Almirola, Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch and Michael McDowell.
Teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. had already advanced on the strength of victories earlier in the three-race opening round. Regular-season champ Larson had also previously advanced based on his points cushion in the series standings.
The Cup Series’ next race is the South Point 400, scheduled Sunday, Sept. 26 (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Nevada track hosts the first of three races in the next phase of the postseason, the Round of 12.
This story will be updated.