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BRISTOL, Tennessee (AP) – Kyle Larson won at Bristol Motor Speedway – it’s hardly a big surprise or even the most interesting part of NASCAR’s first playoff race.
The post-race feud between defending Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick stole the show on Saturday night, especially when Harvick angrily said to the excited crowd, “I’m ready to rip someone’s head off. ‘a.”
The fickle crowd struggled to choose sides before settling firmly behind Elliott, NASCAR’s most popular driver.
Harvick took the lead from Elliott with 33 laps to go, but the difficult race caused contact that cut one of Elliott’s tires. After a quick tire change, Elliott got his revenge by deliberately slowing down past Harvick to give Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson a chance to catch Harvick.
Larson pulled off the winning pass with four laps to go for his sixth victory of the year. Then Harvick and Elliott parked next to each other on the pit road, jumped out the windows, and immediately started nibbling at each other.
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“Obviously Harvick and Chase got together. Chase was upset. Kind of held it back, â€Larson said. “It made Harvick move around and use his tires down. I started doing a few dives from (lap) two, did a big run, decided to press the trigger, slide him, squeeze him a little bit, when he got me up on the frontstretch, it was wild.
Then came the pit route showdown.
Harvick had put on his helmet first and Elliott waved his finger in front of Harvick’s face. There was a brief flare up, Harvick slammed his helmet in anger and the two drivers blamed each other even after the verbal fight moved inside Elliott’s transporter for a private conversation.
“We were running for the fucking victory in Bristol, we’re three wide in the middle, and he gives a tantrum like I’m just trying to take the lead and beat him hard,” Harvick fumed. “Then he pulled in front of me and sat there until I lost all my head.
The crowd at that time was very decidedly on Elliott’s side.
“They can boo anybody, I don’t care,†Harvick said.
Elliott, meanwhile, has indicated that Harvick is pushing people onto the track and the pattern needs to stop.
“It’s something he does all the time. It constantly bumps into your left side on other tracks and sometimes it cuts your left side and other times it doesn’t, “Elliott said.” He did it to me in Darlington a few weeks ago because he was fed up with running with me and if he did it on purpose it didn’t matter.
“I don’t care who he is or how long he’s been doing it. I’m going to defend myself and my team and continue on the road.”
With that, the Bristol faithful were firmly Team Elliott.
But fans loved Larson too, and he was overwhelmed with adoration as he approached his first NASCAR Championship. Larson is the seed and the favorite to win the Cup.
“I love this place. It’s by far my favorite track. That’s why,†Larson told the crowd. “You are amazing, loud. We feel the energy as we race. Thank you all for spending your hard earned money to come and watch us put on a show.”
Elliott had led a race-high 175 laps, but was 25th. Harvick, winless after last year’s series-lead wins, was looking to achieve a 36-run winless streak on the anniversary of his final victory in 2020. Instead, he finished second.
The sixth win of the season, a Larson Cup high, was a record-breaking night for Hendrick Motorsports. Its four drivers advanced to the playoffs after Alex Bowman and William Byron both faced elimination danger in Bristol, the third and final race of the first round when NASCAR reduced the field from 16 to 12.
Instead, Tyler Reddick, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and Michael McDowell were eliminated.
Bowman was third to save his playoffs, while Bowman was fifth and Chevrolet had three cars in the top five. Three more spots went to Ford with Harvick, then Penske teammates Ryan Blaney fourth and Brad Keselowski sixth.
Martin Truex Jr., seventh, was the highest ranked Toyota driver.
Kurt Busch’s elimination from the playoffs means Chip Ganassi won’t win a championship in his 20-year NASCAR career. He sold his team to TrackHouse Racing at the end of the season and Busch was his last title shot.
Ganassi entered NASCAR in 2001, the year he came close to winning a championship until a late-season injury ended Sterling Marlin’s season early. Ganassi still competes in several other series and has three IndyCar Championship chances starting on Sunday.
MORE: The second round of the playoffs opens Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Larson won his first race of the year. Kurt Busch is the reigning race winner. Las Vegas is the first of three races on the tour in which the field is reduced from 12 to eight.
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