Kyle Larson had the field covered for the second straight time at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, leading 411 of 500 laps to win the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday in Bristol, Tenn.
In the ninth race of 2025, Larson started third and dominated the field after swiping the lead from polesitter Alex Bowman on Lap 40.
He beat Denny Hamlin, seeking a third straight win, by 2.25 seconds for his second victory of 2025 and 31st overall.
Larson led 462 laps last September to win the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver won for the third time at BMS, all occurring in the past six races, in a race that featured just three cautions and one multi-car incident — Shane van Gisbergen and Cody Ware tangling within the first 200 laps.
Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney comprised the top five.
Xfinity Series racer Jesse Love made his Cup debut in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 33 Chevrolet. The Californian qualified 19th and finished 31st.
Bowman paced the first 39 times around the 0.533-mile speedway, but Larson, who won Saturday’s Xfinity race, roared past his teammate and pulled away. Meanwhile, Hamlin moved up to second in a fast Stage 1.
Larson won the 125-lap segment, but it took a hard battle with Ryan Preece’s No. 60 — the final car on the lead lap — to get to the checkers, leaving just 23 cars on the same lap with Larson. Hamlin, Justin Haley, Bowman and Carson Hocevar completed positions second to fifth, respectively.
van Gisbergen got into Ware for the second caution, but the mishaps continued on pit road. While leaving his pit, John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42 lost a tire, which traveled down and struck Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 during service, and Suarez’s crew let an old tire roll into the pit in front of them. Both teams received penalties.
Larson had them covered again on Lap 250 as Stage 2 ended, with Bowman, Christopher Bell, Hocevar and Hamlin getting chunks of bonus points.
Concern grew in the Hendrick Motorsports camp when Bowman’s No. 48 began billowing blue smoke around Lap 300. He retired it on Lap 352 and finished 37th.
