Kyle Larson wins, 2 NASCAR champions eliminated from the playoffs

NASCAR champions Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. were among the first four drivers eliminated from the playoffs Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Kyle Larson took an easy win.

The first of three elimination races in the 10-race playoffs began with Denny Hamlin, Truex, Keselowski and Harrison Burton all below the cutline and facing elimination from the 16-driver field.

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner and four-time winner at the Bristol, Tennessee, race track, was never really worried and finished fourth.

“My goal was to win,” Hamlin said. “It's as good as what we've been here the last few times. From now on, it's all about offense.”

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Burton, who qualified for the playoffs with a surprise win at Daytona last month before losing his spot with Wood Brothers Racing, was doubtful to recover enough to advance and finished 35th. Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion, and Truex, the 2017 champion, had better chances to salvage their playoff spots, but both came away empty-handed.

Truex was penalized for speeding on pit road, which took him out of contention to advance, and Keselowski simply didn't have the pace. Joe Gibbs Racing also had to eliminate two of its four cars from the playoffs, as Ty Gibbs was also penalized for speeding.

Keselowski finished 26th.

“We didn't have the pace we wanted. We ran as fast as we could, but there was just nothing there,” Keselowski said. “We just have to be faster.”

Truex will retire from full-time racing at the end of the season.

“It's something like that that ruins your whole season,” Truex said of the speeding penalty. “It's on me. It was my mistake. It's really too bad for my guys. We had a really good car. I hate that I messed it up. I would have at least tried to see what we could do.”

Larson, meanwhile, led 462 of 500 laps, the most since Cale Yarborough led 495 laps in 1977. Larson's lead laps are the most ever led by a Hendrick Motorsports driver and marked the fifth win of the season for the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet.

In Bristol he led all but 38 laps.

That's an impressive statistic considering the Hendrick team has fielded cars for Hall of Fame drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt Jr., among others.

“It's pretty awesome because there were some legendary Hall of Famers that raced for Hendrick Motorsports and we all grew up watching Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson dominate,” Larson said. “So it's pretty cool to see my name on another Hendrick Motorsports record.”

Daniel Suarez, who finished 31st, four laps behind, fought his way to the last spot for the second round of the playoffs, 11 points ahead of Gibbs.

Also advancing were Chase Elliott, who finished second, Christopher Bell, who finished fifth, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman.

Hendricks' entire four-car Chevrolet lineup advanced, as did all three Ford drivers from Team Penske. But Toyota lost two JGR entries and Ford lost two cars in Keselowski and Burton.

LaJoie's last ride Corey LaJoie had already learned from Spire Motorsports that he would not be back next year, so he still had the rest of the season to finish successfully.

Then Spire threw him a lifeline by making an unusual driver swap with Rick Ware Racing that will put Justin Haley in Spire's No. 7 car. LaJoie will replace Haley at RWR at Kansas Speedway starting next week.

While Haley's contract guarantees him the spot in 2025, LaJoie will have to earn the RWR spot. But in the meantime, he wanted to do well with Spire one last time. He qualified ninth and was running 11th when he was involved in an accident that essentially ended his career with Spire.

Next NASCAR opens the second round of the playoffs at Kansas Speedway, where Tyler Reddick won last fall and Larson won in May. Bell takes a six-point lead over Larson to Kansas.