Larson's amazing dominating performance at Bass Pro Shops Night Race one for the ages

Kyle Larson’s amazing run in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway sparked the interest of many longtime racing historians as they were in total awe by the sheer domination that the California driver exhibited all night long around the ultra-challenging .533-mile high-banked bullring.

Larson’s victory also drilled deep into the Bristol Motor Speedway record book. Perhaps the sheer excellence of that performance could easily be overlooked by some, who crave the usual dramatic finishes that Bristol Motor Speedway routinely dishes out. That memorable performance will battle for the top spot on a different list – the one titled “Most Dominant Driver Performances in NASCAR Cup Series History”.

Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team were extremely impressive in the Round of 16 Playoff elimination race at The Last Great Colosseum. So impressive, in fact, that they broke and challenged some Bristol records that were established decades ago. One of them was long thought to never be broken.

Larson says he and his team executed a flawless race both on the track and in the pits and the fans at Bristol were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime showing of a perfect record-breaking performance. After the race, Hendrick Motorsports exec Jeff Gordon quipped to Larson, “Hey, are you going to break all of my records?”

“It’s fun when you can execute like that and turn it into an historic night,” Larson said. “I know you guys (media) probably think that the race in the spring (Food City 500) was better, but as a driver, I would way rather run 100 percent all night long for 500 laps than run 50 percent. I don't think that's much of a race. I grew up racing different stuff where you do push the whole race, but I think (tonight’s) version of Bristol is way more exciting.”

Below are a few of the milestones that Larson set on his way to a perfectly executed race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

- Larson finished 7.088 seconds ahead of second-place Chase Elliott.

This certainly wasn’t a record because in the early days of Bristol Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough would win races at BMS by two or three laps or more, but in the last three decades fans at Bristol have gotten used to margins of victory of less than a second. In fact, the last time a Bristol winner won by more than 7 seconds you have to go all the way back to the 1992 Bud 500 and Darrell Waltrip, who won by a whopping 9.28 seconds. Prior to that there were a couple of anomalies like Jeff Gordon winning the ’95 Food City 500 by 5.74 seconds, Kevin Harvick winning the ’05 Food City 500 by 4.65 seconds and Dale Earnhardt Jr winning the 2004 Night Race by 4.39 seconds. Otherwise, the large majority of modern-day Cup races at Bristol have been won by less than a second.

- Larson set the BMS record for fastest average race speed at 101.277 mph (2 hours, 37 mins., 53 secs)

One of the records that most NASCAR pundits and record book keepers thought would never be challenged was the July 1971 race won by the late ‘Chargin’’ Charlie Glotzbatch with relief from Friday Hassler. The duo led a combined 411 laps that day and won the 1971 Volunteer 500 with an average race speed of 101.074 mph (2 hours, 38 mins, 12 seconds). There were no cautions in that race. Given the average number of cautions at each Bristol race in the past few decades and it was easy to see why no one thought this record was touchable. Only one other race in BMS history has had an average speed of 100 mph or more and that was Cale Yarborough’s win in the 1977 Southeastern 500 where he took the checkered flag a full seven laps ahead of second-place Dick Brooks (100.989 mph).

- Larson also led the fourth most laps for a winner in BMS history at 462 laps.

Larson’s 462-laps led ranks fourth in the history of Cup Series races most laps led at Bristol Motor Speedway. The most ever led was in 1973 by Cale Yarborough, who led all 500 laps of the Southeastern 500. Yarborough also holds down the second spot on that list too as he led 495 laps of the 1977 Southeastern 500. Fred Lorenzen led 494 laps of the 1964 Southeastern 500.

Tickets are on sale for the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race weekend, April 11-13, 2025. The Cup stars will be joined at Bristol that weekend by the SciAps 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race and the WEATHER GUARD Truck Race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. To purchase tickets visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158.