Kyle Larson Wins Las Vegas After a Nail Biting Finish with Tyler Reddick

The reigning champion of Las Vegas, Hendrick Motorsports star Kyle Larson, has done it once again. Before Larson’s victory last fall, it was Daytona 500 champ William Byron who clinched the spring race here, aiming to hold onto his title. Meanwhile, Daniel Suarez, fresh off his Atlanta win, was gunning for consecutive victories, a first in his career.

But Kyle Larson, feeling right at home on the track, edged out Tyler Reddick to snag Stages 1, 2, and eventually the final stage as well. This was his third win on the track after 2021 and 2023.

Another dominating victory for Larson in Kyle Busch’s hometown

The #5 car was unstoppable, sweeping Stages 1 and 2. That’s five consecutive stage wins in Vegas for him and six in a row for the Hendrick Motorsports team. Early in the final stage, Larson left Denny Hamlin in the dust, stretching his lead to a whole two seconds. Although Kyle Busch later snagged second place from Hamlin, Larson was already three seconds ahead, cruising in the lead.

Ross Chastain was on a mission too, trying to catch up to Larson and undo the lap he lost due to a speeding penalty. Come lap 190, Tyler Reddick was hot on Larson’s heels, with Bubba Wallace, several laps down but on fresh tires, giving Reddick a boost down the backstretch to close the gap on Larson.

By lap 213, Larson headed for the pits from the lead, followed by Martin Truex Jr, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, and others, including William Byron and Carson Hocevar. The move handed the lead over to Daniel Suarez, with Todd Gilliland, Michael McDowell, Derek Kraus, and Justin Haley right behind him, all gambling on a different strategy but likely needing to pit soon. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch got slapped with a penalty for pitting outside his box.

While hitting the pits, Tyler Reddick ended up losing some ground to Larson. With just 28 laps left on the clock, Ross Chastain climbed up to second, breathing down Larson’s neck, trailing by just a hair’s breadth of 0.30 seconds behind the #5 car.

Larson did everything to make his car a moving roadblock, but Ross Chastain was not about to roll over and play dead! Chastain clung on tight to Larson’s flank, pushing him to defend his lead tooth and nail before Larson managed to shake him off after a tense two-lap showdown.

In the final stretch, Larson and Reddick were neck and neck, just three-tenths of a second apart, until Reddick finally caught up to Larson! With just two laps left to the finish line, Larson smartly swiped Reddick’s racing line, leaving Reddick struggling to catch up. That three-tenths of a second gap? It stayed put all the way to the checkered flag.

It was the seventh career win for Kyle Larson on the mile and a half-track. Plus, Chevrolet, continues to maintain dominance and a winning streak in the Cup Series, winning eight of nine national series races to open the year. It was a swift win for him. However, in his post-race chat, Larson confessed that keeping Tyler Reddick in his rearview wasn’t a walk in the park.

#5 knew from Stage 1 only that Tyler Reddick would be hard to defeat

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Right from the get-go of Stage 1, Kyle Larson was biting his nails because Tyler Reddick was hot on his heels, refusing to back down. At times, it looked like they were racing side by side. However, Larson, pulling from his deep well of racing savvy, managed to keep Reddick at bay by playing it smart with the air around his car.

Larson shared, “I knew Tyler was gonna be the guy to be from the first stage. He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were gonna get racing a little bit longer behind me ’cause I felt like he was gonna time out to where he was running really hard and getting the toe to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to airblock him a couple of laps and get him tight, I thought him and Bubba were going to work together again to build a run, but so I was happy that didn’t happen.”

Read More: Relentless Kyle Larson Outsmarts HMS Teammate as He Claims Back to Back Vegas Stage One-Two Victory

He then tipped his hat to his crew, team, and Chevy, praising their flawless performance in the pits and on the track. “All in all, such a great great job, this Hendrick car Chevy team, and just their execution—pit road, restarts – all that was great.”

Meanwhile, Reddick was anything but pleased, taking second place. He felt that Larson, leading the pack, had the upper hand throughout the race, mainly due to the way NASCAR’s new car rules played out.