BRISTOL (Tenn.) -- Kyle Larson defeated Kevin Harvick with a masterful pass at Bristol Motor Speedway. Saturday night was overshadowed by a postrace skirm between Harvick, and Chase Elliott, the reigning Cup champion.
The heat was so intense that Harvick declared, with his losing streak now at exactly one-year, "I'm ready rip somebody's heads off" to a crowd not sure if Elliott or Harvick should be cheered or booed.
Harvick screamed, "We were racing to win the frickin’ race at Bristol. We're three-wide in middle and he throws temper tantrums like I was trying to get the lead. Race him hard." "Then, he pulled up in front me and just sat there until I lost the entire lead."
Elliott was surrounded by a large crowd.
Harvick stated, "They can boo all that they want, but I don't care."
Elliott indicated that Harvick pushes people along the track, and that the pattern must end.
Elliott stated that it was something Elliott does all the time. He runs into your left side at other tracks, and sometimes it cuts down your left side. Other times it doesn’t. It happened to me in Darlington, a few weeks back. He was tired of racing with us and it doesn't really matter if he did it intentionally.
"I don’t care about who he is, or how long he has been doing this. I will stand up for myself, my team, and continue down the road.
Elliott led the race with 175 laps, but Harvick was ahead of him with 33 laps remaining in an aggressive sequence where their cars touched. Harvick managed to escape the accident unharmed, but Elliott's Chevrolet suffered a flat tire.
Harvick looked set to win his first season's win (his last win came in Bristol a year back). But Elliott, furious after changing his tires, returned to the track and intentionally slowed down in front Harvick to try to end Harvick’s race.
Larson was able to close the gap with the slowdown and made the race-winning move in the final four laps. Larson was the top seed in the playoffs and won the Cup with a sixth victory.
It was a great night for Hendrick Motorsports. They got a win by Larson and all four of their drivers were in the playoffs. William Byron and Alex Bowman were in danger of being eliminated at Bristol, the final race of the first round of NASCAR's cut-throat format.
Instead, Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola were eliminated, as was Kurt Busch, Kurt Busch, Michael McDowell, and Kurt Busch. Chip Ganassi won't win a championship in his 20-year NASCAR racing career because Busch was eliminated. Busch was his last chance to win a title, and he'd already sold his team.
Larson celebrated the defeat of the drivers and Harvick and Elliott giddy on pit road, while Larson sighed over their fate.
After the race, they parked their cars together on pit road. They then followed each other down until their cars were nose-to-tail. Both drivers jumped out of their cars. Harvick wore his helmet and Elliott raised Elliott's finger to Harvick.
The jawing went on, became briefly physical, and finally led to a private conversation in Elliott's hauler.
