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Kyle Larson sweeps The Glen

Chase Elliott might have secured the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship during Sunday’s Watkins Glen International event, but he was not in a celebratory mood by the end when Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Kyle Larson moved him aside on the final restart with five laps remaining for the win.

A caution for Loris Hezemans‘ beached car on lap 84 set up a late restart with Elliott in front of Larson. However, Larson made an aggressive move on the inside as they approached the first corner that resulted in contact. Elliott was shuffled behind Larson and A.J. Allmendinger and ultimately had to settle for fourth.

Larson also won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race to mark his first career weekend sweep. Allmendinger finished second in both events, making the pair the first 1–2 finishers in a given weekend’s Cup and Xfinity races in those exact positions since Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch at New Hampshire in 2014.

“I had the restart before, I kind of got put in a bad spot because he had the dominant position on me with the nose ahead,” Larson explained in his post-race press conference. “Every time I was in the right lane yesterday in Xfinity, I was in the same spot, I would always get pinched into the kerb. A lot of times I got passed by the time we got to turn two.

“I figured it was probably going to be the last restart of the weekend. I told myself if I had a nose ahead of him before we got to the braking zone, I was going to have to try my best to maintain that, not let him get a nose ahead of me, pinch my corner off, end my chance of winning. I had a good restart. I got in there hot. Did what I had to do to win. Again, I’m not necessarily proud of it, especially with a teammate, but I feel like I had to execute that way to get the win.”

Elliott simply gave his congratulations to Larson in his post-race interview, though his frustrations were evident as he inadvertently said he was “looking forward to going to Bristol next week” (the next race is Daytona). The team-mates had clashed at Fontana in February while fighting for the lead late, also eventually resulting in a Larson win. Larson commented they “were able to talk after the incident at Auto Club, moved on past that pretty quickly. I haven’t seen an interview. I haven’t seen anything about Chase today. I think at Auto Club it was more of an accident. Today it was hard racing at the end on a restart. I’m sure it will warrant some sort of conversation, but I don’t know.”

While Elliott led a race-high twenty-five laps, the Fords of Chase Briscoe and Joey Logano won the two stages. Logano finished third while Briscoe was plagued by a broken toe link and placed twenty-fifth. Fellow Ford Michael McDowell led fourteen laps, his most on a road course, to score a sixth but will need to win at Daytona to clinch a playoff spot; he won the Daytona 500 in 2021.

“It is disappointing. I don’t think we quite had enough for the #9 or the #5,” McDowell commented. “I tried to hold them off as long as I could, they just had a bit of pace on me. They were pushing me hard enough that I was getting wide and making mistakes. I tried to make a move on that second-to-last restart there and got a pretty good run on the #5 and went to the inside and it just didn’t work out. We got jammed up on the bottom and everyone was smashing into each other and we lost a couple of spots. That was pretty much it at that point. It is just disappointing.”

Daniel Suárez was the highest finisher of the record six drivers from outside the United States in the race. The other five were part-timers, with Mike Rockenfeller topping them in thirtieth in his maiden Cup start. Fellow newcomer Kimi Räikkönen ran in the top ten before crashing out and finishing thirty-seventh, one spot behind fellow Formula One alumnus Daniil Kvyat. Hezemans and Kyle Tilley, the other international drivers, respectively finished thirty-third and thirty-ninth (the latter with a steering failure).

Race results

FinishStartNumberDriverTeamManufacturerLapsStatus
125Kyle LarsonHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
2616A.J. Allmendinger*Kaulig RacingChevrolet90Running
32022Joey LoganoTeam PenskeFord90Running
419Chase ElliottHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
5999Daniel SuárezTrackhouse Racing TeamChevrolet90Running
6334Michael McDowellFront Row MotorsportsFord90Running
758Tyler ReddickRichard Childress RacingChevrolet90Running
83820Christopher BellJoe Gibbs RacingToyota90Running
9717Chris BuescherRFK RacingFord90Running
103143Erik JonesPetty GMS MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
112941Cole CusterStewart-Haas RacingFord90Running
12244Kevin HarvickStewart-Haas RacingFord90Running
1382Austin CindricTeam PenskeFord90Running
141148Alex BowmanHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
152147Ricky Stenhouse Jr.JTG Daugherty RacingChevrolet90Running
162842Ty DillonPetty GMS MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
17123Austin DillonRichard Childress RacingChevrolet90Running
181331Justin HaleyKaulig RacingChevrolet90Running
19156Brad KeselowskiRFK RacingFord90Running
202211Denny HamlinJoe Gibbs RacingToyota90Running
21181Ross ChastainTrackhouse Racing TeamChevrolet90Running
22424William ByronHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
232519Martin Truex Jr.Joe Gibbs RacingToyota90Running
242612Ryan BlaneyTeam PenskeFord90Running
251414Chase BriscoeStewart-Haas RacingFord90Running
261645Ty Gibbs*23XI RacingToyota90Running
27327Corey LaJoieSpire MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
283021Harrison BurtonWood Brothers RacingFord90Running
293510Aric AlmirolaStewart-Haas RacingFord90Running
303377Mike RockenfellerSpire MotorsportsChevrolet90Running
311715Joey HandRick Ware RacingFord90Running
321018Kyle BuschJoe Gibbs RacingToyota89Running
333427Loris Hezemans*Team HezebergFord89Running
343951Cody WareRick Ware RacingFord88Running
352323Bubba Wallace23XI RacingToyota83Suspension
363626Daniil KvyatTeam HezebergToyota58Running
372791Kimi RäikkönenTrackhouse Racing TeamChevrolet44Accident
381938Todd GillilandFront Row MotorsportsFord28Rear End
393778Kyle TilleyLive Fast MotorsportsFord15Steering
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points

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