Kyle Larson took his next step in competing for a second title by winning the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs’ opening Round of 8 race, the South Point 400, Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nev.
The 31-year-old Larson led on the final restart with 45 laps to go and nipped polesitter Christopher Bell by 0.082 seconds to claim the 267-lap race around the 1.5-mile, high-banked layout.
Bell made a hard charge on the final lap and got to Larson’s bumper off Turn 4 but could not make the pass.
Larson’s win at LVMS puts him and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team into the Championship 4 that will compete for the championship at Phoenix Raceway next month.
The victory was the fourth for the Elk Grove, Calif., native in 2023 and 23rd of his career in 328 races.
The 2021 Cup champion, Larson’s performance in the desert was similar to the way he opened the playoffs last month — by winning and advancing to the next round.
At Darlington Raceway in the postseason’s opening race, Larson scored the win in the Southern 500 and moved on to the Round of 12.
Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain completed the top-five finishers.
For the fourth time in the past eight races, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell put his No. 20 Camry on the pole, giving him six top qualifying spots in 2023 and Toyota six in the playoffs’ first seven events.
However, Larson moved to the point on Lap 3 and eventually held on to win the top playoff points in Stage 1, which featured seven of the eight playoff contenders collecting points.
After a series of pit stops as Stage 2 neared its end, Larson — who was the top restarting driver who took four tires — charged to the front past William Byron and beat Chastain to the checkers for the bonus points.
However, Bell went to the point on the restart with just under 100 laps to go and led Chastain, Keselowski, Larson and Byron.
Ty Gibbs brought out the day’s seventh caution on Lap 216 when the wheel came off his No. 54 JGR Toyota to set up a 45-lap shootout with all the playoff drivers racing inside the top 14.