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Larson out-duels Reddick to win NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas

While Larson statistically dominated the race – winning both stages and leading 181 of 267 laps – the end of each stage came down to a one-on-one battle between Larson and Reddick.

Larson led the way late in the final stage when a wreck by Corey LaJoie brought out a caution and sent all the lead lap cars down pit road for new tires.

Laron got a big lead on the restart with 27 laps but six laps later Reddick had moved into second and began closing the gap. Reddick got within several cars lengths as the race remained green the rest of the way by Larson edged him by 0.441 seconds at the checkered flag.

Race winner Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro (Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images)
"I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage when he was really fast there," said Larson, who took his young son and daughter for a victory ride in his No. 5 Chevrolet after the race. "I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I thought it was going to time out to where he was running really hard.
"I thought he and Bubba (Wallace) were going to try to work together and build a run. So, I was happy that didn't happen. All in all, just a great, great job by this team. Just the execution on pit road, the restarts, all that was great. Cool to get a win here in Vegas again. Swept all the stages again. Can't ask for much more."

The win is the first for Larson this season and 24th of his career. It’s also the 10th win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Hendrick Motorsports and the fourth consecutive by an HMS driver in the tracks’ spring race.

Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney ended up third, Ross Chastain fourth and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Noah Gragson, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and William Byron.

Larson now leads the series standings by eight points over Blaney with Truex in third, 14 points behind Larson.

Stage 1

Laron held off a determined Reddick by 0.469 seconds to take the Stage 1 win. Truex was third, Kyle Busch fourth and Hamlin ended up fifth.

Chris Buescher was knocked out of contention early when he lost his right-rear wheel which caused him to slam the wall between Turns 1 and 2 and did significant damage to his No. 17 Ford. The incident also caused the race to be stopped for nearly 11 minutes to make some repairs to the wall.

Stage 2

Larson grabbed the lead on a late restart and once again held off a spirited charge from Reddick and took the Stage 2 win by 0.176 seconds. Hamlin was third, Blaney fourth and Truex rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, most lead lap cars elected to remain on the track and Larson continued to lead the way when the final stage got under way with 95 laps remaining.

With 75 laps to go, Larson maintained a nearly 1.5-second lead over Reddick as Hamlin ran third.

Multiple laps down due to problems with his left-front lug nut, Bubba Wallace got in behind his 23XI Racing teammate Reddick and helped him chase down Larson, cutting his lead to under half-a-second.

With 61 laps remaining, Alex Bowman was the first of the lead lap cars to hit pit road to start a final round of green flag stops to take on new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

NASCAR caught Busch for pitting outside his pit box during his stop and he had to serve a pass through penalty, which dropped him a lap down. Byron had to back up when making his stop, which cost him several positions.

When the cycle of stops was completed, Larson returned to the lead with about a 2.6-second advantage over Reddick with 46 laps to go.

On Lap 235, LaJoie spun around coming off Turn 2 and back his No. 7 Chevrolet into the wall to bring out a caution.

All the lead lap cars decided to pit with Larson the first off pit road, followed by Chastain, who took just two new tires. Larson led the way with 27 laps to go.

Reddick got around Chastain to move into the runner-up position with 21 laps remaining and set his sights on Larson for the lead.

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1 K. LarsonHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 5 Chevrolet 267

3:00'24.877

  10 60
2 T. Reddick23XI RACING 45 Toyota 267

+0.441

3:00'25.318

0.441 10 53
3 R. BlaneyTEAM PENSKE 12 Ford 267

+3.827

3:00'28.704

3.386 10 41
4 R. ChastainTRACKHOUSE RACING 1 Chevrolet 267

+4.356

3:00'29.233

0.529 11 36
5
T. GibbsJOE GIBBS RACING
54 Toyota 267

+4.577

3:00'29.454

0.221 11 37
6 N. GragsonSTEWART-HAAS RACING 10 Ford 267

+4.859

3:00'29.736

0.282 11 31
7 M. Truex JrJOE GIBBS RACING 19 Toyota 267

+5.418

3:00'30.295

0.559 10 44
8 D. HamlinJOE GIBBS RACING 11 Toyota 267

+6.307

3:00'31.184

0.889 10 43
9 J. LoganoTEAM PENSKE 22 Ford 267

+6.794

3:00'31.671

0.487 10 30
10 W. ByronHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 24 Chevrolet 267

+7.113

3:00'31.990

0.319 12 27
11 D. SuarezTRACKHOUSE RACING 99 Chevrolet 267

+7.626

3:00'32.503

0.513 9 26
12 C. ElliottHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 267

+8.178

3:00'33.055

0.552 10 30
13 B. KeselowskiRFK RACING 6 Ford 267

+8.696

3:00'33.573

0.518 10 24
14 E. JonesLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 43 Toyota 267

+11.209

3:00'36.086

2.513 11 24
15
C. HocevarSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
77 Chevrolet 267

+11.757

3:00'36.634

0.548 11 22
16 A. DillonRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 3 Chevrolet 267

+12.223

3:00'37.100

0.466 10 25
17 R. Stenhouse JrJTG DAUGHERTY RACING 47 Chevrolet 267

+12.543

3:00'37.420

0.320 11 20
18 A. BowmanHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 48 Chevrolet 267

+12.689

3:00'37.566

0.146 11 22
19 D. HemricKAULIG RACING 31 Chevrolet 267

+13.255

3:00'38.132

0.566 11 18
20 J. BerrySTEWART-HAAS RACING 4 Ford 267

+13.876

3:00'38.753

0.621 10 17
21 C. BriscoeSTEWART-HAAS RACING 14 Ford 267

+14.214

3:00'39.091

0.338 10 16
22 J. NemechekLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 42 Toyota 267

+14.627

3:00'39.504

0.413 11 15
23 R. PreeceSTEWART-HAAS RACING 41 Ford 267

+15.676

3:00'40.553

1.049 11 14
24 T. GillilandFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 38 Ford 267

+16.632

3:00'41.509

0.956 12 13
25 M. McDowellFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 34 Ford 267

+17.271

3:00'42.148

0.639 9 12
26 K. BuschRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 8 Chevrolet 267

+23.467

3:00'48.344

6.196 10 18
27 J. HaleyRICK WARE RACING 51 Ford 267

+23.576

3:00'48.453

0.109 11 10
28 D. KrausKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 267

+24.085

3:00'48.962

0.509 9 9
29 A. CindricTEAM PENSKE 2 Ford 267

+24.621

3:00'49.498

0.536 10 10
30 H. BurtonWOOD BROTHERS RACING 21 Ford 267

+29.805

3:00'54.682

5.184 9 7
31 K. GralaRICK WARE RACING 15 Ford 267

+29.994

3:00'54.871

0.189 9 6
32 C. LajoieSPIRE MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 266

+1 Lap

3:00'49.654

1 Lap 11 9
33 C. BellJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 265

+2 Laps

3:00'42.696

1 Lap 13 5
34 J. YeleyNY RACING TEAM 44 Chevrolet 261

+6 Laps

3:00'40.445

4 Laps 9  
35 B. Wallace23XI RACING 23 Toyota 254

+13 Laps

3:00'30.987

7 Laps 11 2
36
Z. SmithSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
71 Chevrolet 254

+13 Laps

3:00'42.280

11.293 11 1
37 C. BuescherRFK RACING 17 Ford 27

+240 Laps

20'11.572

227 Laps 4 1
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