FORT WORTH, Texas - With 12 cautions including seven in the final stage, Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway quickly became a battle for survival.
And while ultimately, it wasn't quite the win it often looked like it would be for Kyle Larson, his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet was still intact and rolling when the checkered flag fell.
Larson won the second stage - his fifth straight race at Texas with a stage victory - and turned in a solid fourth-place finish, scoring 50 points along the way. It was the second straight race in which the 32-year-old scored the most points.
He also led the most laps and was in control of the race through much of stage three. But on lap 244, Michael McDowell got a good jump on a restart and had help from behind, shuffling Larson back to fourth. With three more cautions and restarts, and with track position at a premium all day, Larson wasn't able to quite make it back to the point.
"You don't want to give up the lead at a mile-and-a-half (track), it's hard to get it back," Larson said. "Michael just did a good job timing it. I left early the restart before and was going to leave early again then and he just anticipated and left probably right with me or barely before and he had (Tyler) Reddick pushing behind him. Wish I could go back and do that all over again. Just try to learn from it."
William Byron, the Cup Series points leader, was solid in each of the first two stages, finishing seventh in both and scoring eight points. During the stage two caution break, crew chief Rudy Fugle made a two-tire call but Byron made contact with Cole Custer upon leaving his stall. Still, Byron took over the lead and was able to hold on for a while, eventually succumbing to Larson.
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After trying to short pit, Byron was trapped a lap down when Jesse Love crashed with 49 laps to go, bringing out a caution. However, he quickly got it back when Kyle Busch spun a handful of laps later and the No. 24 team went to work. More cautions and trips down pit road gave the team more time to repair the nose and by the end, Byron had rallied all the way back to a 13th-place finish.
Chase Elliott was also trapped a lap down along with Byron and like the 24 team, the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts squad used the Busch caution to rejoin the lead lap. From there, the 9 followed the 24 back through the field, avoiding damage from cautions and eventually coming home with a 19th-place showing.
Alex Bowman was also fast throughout most of the early going, especially in stage two as he rocketed through the field all the way to third, scoring eight points. But the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was collected in a crash at the beginning of stage three, not of Bowman's doing, and the damage was too severe to repair. He finished 35th.
“I just saw guys wrecking in front of me. I tried to get high. The No. 16 (AJ Allmendinger) came back across the track, and we all piled in there," Bowman said. "I hate that for this team. We had a really fast No. 48 Ally Chevrolet. I think we passed more cars than anyone’s ever passed at Texas.”
The NASCAR Cup Series will return next week with a race at Kansas Motor Speedway. Next Sunday's race is set for a 3 p.m. green flag and will air on FS1.
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Who won the NASCAR race today?
- Joey Logano, No. 22
- Ross Chastain, no. 1
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 Valvoline Cheverolet
- Erik Jones, No. 43
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47
- Austin Dillon, No. 3
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42
- Christopher Bell, No. 20
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99
- Todd Gilliland, No. 34
- Ty Dillon, No. 10
- William Byron, No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet
- Riley Herbst, No. 35
- Justin Haley, No. 7
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA 100th Anniversary Chevrolet
- Zane Smith, No. 38
- Chris Buescher, No. 17
- Cole Custer, No. 41
- Kyle Busch, No. 8
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45
- Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77
- Austin Cindric, No. 2
- Michael McDowell, No. 71
- Chase Briscoe, No. 19
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6
- Ryan Preece, No. 60
- Cody Ware, No. 51
- Jesse Love, No. 62
- Josh Berry, No. 21
- Bubba Wallace, No. 23
- Noah Gragson
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16
- Chad Finchum, No. 66
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11