XFINITY: Kyle Larson Leads All But 24 Laps in Bristol Stomping

Apr 12, 2025; Bristol, Tennessee, USA; NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Kyle Larson (17) celebrates after winning the NASCAR SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. | Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

It was crystal clear from the drop of the green flag that if anybody was going to beat Kyle Larson and the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports team in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, it would likely take something very peculiar happening to do so.

Fortunately, for Larson, nothing came between him and a dominant thumping of the 38-car NASCAR Xfinity Series field on Saturday as he led 276 of the 300 laps en route to a win by 2.054 seconds over JR Motorsports' Rookie of the Year contender Carson Kvapil.

RESULTS: SciAps 300 at Bristol

But over the final run of the race, Larson did have to manage lapped traffic in order to keep the hungry group of drivers behind him at bay for the win.

"I just love this place, especially in Xfinity. You can move around in traffic, and it's just a lot of fun," Larson explained. "It just felt like when I got to traffic, I could get picking people off, but Justin [Allgaier] did a good job kind of hanging with me that last run, so, the pressure was on a little bit. But we just had a good enough car to get to the lead, stay in the lead, and be really good in traffic."

The win marks the 16th of Larson's career in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and with his first win of the 2025 Xfinity season, the driver has now won at least one Xfinity Series event in each of the last four seasons.

The win comes as the Hendrick Motorsports team are racing with heavy hearts following the pasing of the organization's communications director Jon Edwards this week. Larson described how he felt picking up a win for his fallen friend on Saturday.

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"Damn good, for sure," Larson stated with pride. "It's awesome. I wish I could've won last night, but just came up a little bit short. Cool to get a win this weekend for Jon, and you know everybody that has been a part of his life and all that. We've got one more tomorrow, there'd be nothing better than to cap it off with a Cup win for Jon, and all of Hendrick Motorsports."

For the part-time No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Xfinity Series program, this was the first win of the season as well.

Larson, who started from the pole position, started the race with a fevered pace as he had lapped up to the 14th position before even reaching the 70th lap of the race. A big crash on Lap 75, and a pair of Stage Break cautions likely saved us all from Larson lapping the field.

Yes, he was that good on Saturday afternoon. And despite a late-race caution coming out with 88 laps remaining, Larson was able to lead the final 110 laps without interruption.

With the runner-up finish, Kvapil now moves to sixth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings, and he's just three points behind his teammate Connor Zilisch for the series Rookie of the Year point lead.

Justin Allgaier was the driver that Larson made the race-winning pass on for the lead with 110 laps to go. Allgaier, the defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, would finish third on the day. The third-place run was enough to secure Allgaier a $100,000 bonus by being the highest of four Xfinity Dash 4 Cash contenders in the field.

Austin Hill was the next-highest finishing Dash 4 Cash contender in the race, as he finished 24th. The other two Dash 4 Cash contestants, Sheldon Creed and Brennan Poole were swept up in a hard crash on Lap 75 of Saturday's race.

With his latest top-five run (his seventh in nine races this year), Allgaier now holds an 83-point lead in the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season standings over Sam Mayer, who finished 11th after he won the opening Stage of Saturday's race.

Sammy Smith came home in the fourth position ahead of last week's race winner Brandon Jones, who finished fifth.

Jesse Love, Ryan Sieg, Corey Heim, Christian Eckes, and Dean Thompson rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is a trip to the iconic Rockingham Speedway, which will make its return to the NASCAR National Series schedule for the first time since the 2013 season next weekend. The North Carolina Education Lottery 250 presented by Black's Tire is set for Saturday, April 19.

The event at Rockingham will be televised on The CW, and television coverage will kick off at 4:00 PM ET.