Kyle Larson added to his NASCAR Cup Series 2021 season wins tally Sunday at Watkins Glen International with his victory in the Go Bowling at The Glen. His latest win was his series-leading fifth win of the season, his second of the year on a road course. The win also was the fourth road-course win for Hendrick Motorsports of the five, so far, in 2021 and the third-straight HMS win at the track the Cup Series didn’t visit last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s awesome,” Larson said. “I mean, it really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they’ve assembled at their race shop, all the men and women. All four of us could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them, and thanks to everybody else I get to race for. Get to go to Iowa this week and chase another big win, so looking forward to that, and hopefully, can just keep racking these wins up.”
With Sunday’s win, Larson left Watkins Glen tied with Denny Hamlin for the lead in the driver points standings.
“It’s going to be a battle all the way to the end, I think,” Hamlin said “Really proud of our effort today. We passed, had to be, the most cars. We were really, really fast all day. Proud of this whole FedEx Express team. We’ve come a long way on the road courses. I thought we had equal pace with the 5 [Larson], especially on the long run. Obviously, we made an extra stop, there, for whatever reason. It’s an encouraging day when we can be as competitive as what we were.”
Seven-time road-course winner and two-time reigning Watkins Glen victor Chase Elliott closed on Larson in the final laps but managed no better than second for a Hendrick Motorsports one-two finish. Elliott had to drop to the back for the start of the race and was without regular crew chief Alan Gustafson after an issue in pre-race inspection. He was a distant third to Larson and Martin Truex Jr. after a final cycle of green-flag pit stops completed on lap 65 of the 90-lap race. He gained on the two frontrunners and overtook Truex for second with nine laps remaining.
“I made too many mistakes to get the win, unfortunately, and made it too late in the race,” Elliott said “Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day, and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it. If I hadn’t have let them down, there, I think we would have had a shot at it, but congrats to Kyle, Cliff [Daniels, Larson’s crew chief], all the guys on the 5. Happy for everybody at HMS. Hendrick Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and not only do the people deserve to win, but Mr. Hendrick deserves to win. Really happy for him, and I’ll try to clean some things up and make less mistakes next time. Maybe it’ll work out.”
Truex finished third and led his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin in rounding out the top-five.
“It was quite a battle,” Truex said “James [Small, crew chief] did a great job with our Reser’s Fine Foods Camry to get track position to put us where we needed to be. We didn’t quite have the speed on the longer runs to take advantage of that track position. We tried hard and thanks to everybody for working hard. We’re a little behind those two [Larson and Elliott] right now on road courses; they’re really, really fast. I just had to burn my tires off to try to stay with them, and then, in 20 laps, they’re gone. Heck of a fight, but we’ll take a third, or a podium as they say in road-course racing, and go to work and try to get better.”
After pitting under green late in the first 20-lap stage, Truex stayed out during the caution between the two stages to restart second for stage two. On the lap-23 restart, he got out in front of Ricky Stenhouse to take a lead he’d hold until his final pit stop on lap 57. By that point, he had led a race-high 34 points and claimed a stage-two win on lap 40.
The eventual race winner was second in the laps-led category, running up front for 27 laps.
“Hats off to HendrickCars.com,” Larson said. “ Thanks for everything you guys do for me, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, Cliff Daniels, this whole 5 bunch. Another amazing car. I could tell from about lap three, after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes, that we were going to have a car that could win today.”
Joey Logano won the first 20-lap stage after taking the lead when his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski spun from the top-spot. Keselowski led the first nine laps after starting the race on the pole with Penske teammates Logano and Ryan Blaney in the second snd third positions. After his initial spin, Kesrlowski struggled with a braking issue throughout the race.
None of the Penske drivers were in the top-10 at the checkered flag. An additional spin by Keselowski later in the race collected Logano. Blaney was the only one of the three inside the top-20 at the finish.
William Byron finished sixth. Christopher Bell was seventh after, like Elliott, dropping to the back for the initial green flag because of an issue in pre-race inspection. Bell ran as high as second to Truex early in the final stage before spinning as a result of contact from Larson on lap 55.
“I want to say a big apology to Christopher Bell. I was inside but I wasn’t inside enough, and I didn’t — I needed to have the nose a few feet further ahead, and the angles just caught there in the middle, and I ended up turning him,” Larson said. “Ihate that. I race with him a lot. He’s probably the one guy that I race with the most in all my racing, so hate to turn him like that. We’ve had incredible races together.”
Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Chase Briscoe finished eighth and ninth, and Tyler Reddick was 10th.
The yellow flag waved only four times in the race, including a lap-10 competition caution and two other cautions that divided the race into its three stages. The only caution for an on-track incident came on lap 25 for a stalled James Davison.
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