Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 13, 2025 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
By Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 13, 2025)— He did it for Jon.
For the second straight day at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Larson dominated a NASCAR race and dedicated the victory to friend and PR representative Jon Edwards, who passed away suddenly during the week leading up to the race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
On Sunday, Larson won the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race in overwhelming fashion, leading 411 of 500 laps and sweeping both stages.
The victory was Larson’s second of the season, his second straight at the 0.533-mile high-banked short track and the 31st of his career, and it came one day after the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran away with the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Thunder Valley.
“This one’s definitely for Jon,” said Larson, who finished second in Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race, one spot short of sweeping the weekend. “He’s just a great guy. Successful weekend here. Wish he was going to be here with us to celebrate, but I know he’s celebrating with us in spirit.
“Just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team. Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun.”
Larson, who brushed the outside wall at the apex of Turns 1 and 2 with five laps left—without consequence—finished 2.250 seconds in front of Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, who fell one spot short of a third straight Cup victory. Hamlin’s teammate, Ty Gibbs, was 6.679 seconds back in third in a race that ran without caution for the final 235 laps.
“However many laps of green we ran there was a lot of fun,” Larson said. “I was pretty comfortable with things, and then Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle and kind of kept the pressure on from there.”
After the final pit stops, Hamlin could close within a second of Larson in traffic but never threatened to take the lead.
“You have to give that team their due—just a dominant performance,” Hamlin said. “It looked like a pretty flawless day for them. It looked pretty easy. It was all I had to try to keep up there. I’m glad we were able to give him a little bit of a run with our Progressive Toyota.
“But this weekend, we are all thinking about Jon Edwards’ family, (racing journalist) Al Pearce, (team owner) Shige Hattori (all of whom passed away within the last eight days). We’ve lost a lot of great people in our sport over the last week, so our thoughts are with them.”
“Wish we could have got one more spot, but I just wanted to keep him honest there at the end. That was all I was trying to do, but he was a little too much to handle.”
Hamlin and Larson have finished 1-2 on seven occasions. Sunday’s race was the first of the seven times Larson has come out on top.
Contrary to strong indications from Saturday’s practice, Bristol’s concrete surface rubbered in, and tire wear was not the factor that most teams and drivers anticipated. Ryan Blaney, for instance, ran 175 laps on one set of tires before pitting on Lap 440.
Chase Briscoe came home fourth, as JGR claimed the three positions behind Larson. Blaney ran long during the final green-flag run, led 48 laps after Larson pitted on Lap 390 for tires and fuel and worked his way back to fifth at the end.
Pole winner Alex Bowman led the first 39 laps before Larson grabbed the top spot for the first time. Larson went to win the first stage over Hamlin and the second over Bowman, who later fell out of the race when his engine expired.
The Stage 2 victory was the 66th of Larson’s career, tying him with Martin Truex Jr for the most since stage racing was introduced in 2017.
William Byron charged forward to a sixth-place finish after starting 26th. Ross Chastain ran seventh, followed by Christopher Bell and AJ Allmendinger, the last driver on the lead lap. Austin Dillon was 10th, the first driver one lap down.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Food City 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Sunday, April 13, 2025
- (3) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 500.
- (4) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 500.
- (6) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 500.
- (14) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 500.
- (5) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 500.
- (26) William Byron, Chevrolet, 500.
- (35) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 500.
- (7) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 500.
- (8) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500.
- (17) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 499.
- (9) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 499.
- (11) Josh Berry, Ford, 499.
- (10) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 499.
- (15) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 499.
- (20) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 499.
- (16) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 498.
- (21) Austin Cindric, Ford, 498.
- (27) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 498.
- (22) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 498.
- (29) Ryan Preece, Ford, 498.
- (32) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 498.
- (2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 498.
- (31) Noah Gragson, Ford, 498.
- (38) Joey Logano, Ford, 497.
- (24) Chris Buescher, Ford, 497.
- (28) Erik Jones, Toyota, 497.
- (18) Zane Smith, Ford, 497.
- (25) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 496.
- (33) Cole Custer, Ford, 495.
- (13) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 495.
- (19) Jesse Love(i), Chevrolet, 495.
- (12) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 494.
- (23) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 494.
- (37) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 494.
- (30) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 493.
- (34) Cody Ware, Ford, 493.
- (1) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Engine, 343.
- (36) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, Suspension, 208.
- (39) Josh Bilicki(i), Ford, Electrical, 193.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 100.746 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 38 Mins, 43 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.250 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 3 for 40 laps.
Lead Changes: 4 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Bowman 1-39;K. Larson 40-389;C. Hocevar 390-391;R. Blaney 392-439;K. Larson 440-500.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson 2 times for 411 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 48 laps; Alex Bowman 1 time for 39 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 2 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,11,7,48,77,20,12,47,54,16
Stage #2 Top Ten: 5,48,20,77,11,7,54,12,19,45
