The sound that pierced Sunday’s usual Victory Lane patter — the “woos” from the winning crew, the camera shutters, and the fan buzz — was a ringing bell. It was persistent, cutting through the confetti that blew all over the Las Vegas Motor Speedway grounds in a gale-force wind. It also seemed early.
• Hendrick Motorsports custom holds that a victory bell cart rolls through the organization’s sprawling campus after each NASCAR Cup Series win, with the celebration of a Sunday triumph stretching into midweek commemoration. Now Hendrick’s No. 5 team has a new tradition — a travel-sized version.
• Kyle Larson repeated his stage-sweeping victory from last fall’s Cup Series Playoffs here on Sunday, making it two wins in a row in Las Vegas. He gave Hendrick Motorsports its second victory in three races by leading 181 of the 267 laps. He also gave the organization’s 40th-anniversary campaign a boost to match the preseason fireworks and sent a message to the rest of the field with an early season statement. The preseason kickoff event this year, which united the No. 5 team with the Hendrick Automotive Group, served as the seed for the new winning tradition. Big sales accomplishments are celebrated by ringing the bell in traditional car dealer fashion. It is the flamboyant vice president of finance services for the automotive sector, Darryl Jackson, who is lending that tradition to the race team sponsored by HendrickCars.com.
•Cliff Daniels, the No. 5 crew chief, told NASCAR.com that Darryl Jackson is “the hype man of all hype men” for anyone who knows him. He made us these bells so we could ring them on Victory Lane whenever we won. He’s open and hilarious. I regret that he was unable to attend today. Although we already recorded a video of us ringing the bell and emailed it back to Darryl, I’m sure he was back in Charlotte. He is ecstatic and quite pleased. In my opinion, it’s simply an advancement of what’s already a lot of fun. in honor of a Hendrick custom.
• Thanks in part to Sunday’s maximum-points day, Larson’s performance propelled him into the early lead in the Cup Series standings, jumping him by ten spots. William Byron is in fourth place, Chase Elliott is in seventh, and Alex Bowman is in thirteenth. His teammates are right there with him, making up the only four-car team with all of its drivers now in the far too early playoff positions.
• At the beginning, it appeared that Byron, who won this race in an equally commanding manner the previous year, would be Larson’s main rival. He had the perfect appearance up until his No. 24 Chevy’s engine temperatures skyrocketed into the red due to a large piece of debris that became lodged in the grille. After a lap down, Byron recovered and made an unplanned pit stop to retrieve a garbage bag that would have required a full sanitation crew to fill. On the final stage, Byron slipped through his pit box and recovered once more.
“I believe I made it through the entire field twice,” Byron radioed to his team.
• “I believe three.” Rudy Fugle, the crew chief of number 24, encouraged his driver to finish in 10th place, saying, “Let’s make it four.”
•Tyler Reddick was now Larson’s main rival and his tenacious chase in the final laps made an impression as well. Even though it wasn’t the three-wide photo finish from Atlanta Motor Speedway the previous week, the tension increased as Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota approached Larson’s bumper. However, Larson refuted all of Reddick’s accusations.
• “We did everything right today, from the pit crew to the pit calls, restarts, the car itself, and me in the seat, blocking the right path and making good speed along the way,” Larson remarked.
- “If we can carry that on, I think there is potential to have a great season like we did in 2021.”
- Larson’s 2021 reference was a nod to his 10-win breakout season that ended in his first Cup Series championship. Measuring potential just three races into a 36-race season is often a dangerous proposition, but so far, the indicators are all pointing toward positives.
- As competitors Ford and Toyota start to sort out their new bodywork for this season, Chevrolet is leading 3-0 in the Cup Series and isn’t letting up with the legendary Camaro ZL1. Ford has shown promise thus far in qualifying, going 3 for 3 in securing pole positions. With Reddick’s second-place result on Sunday, along with strong performances from the Joe Gibbs Racing team, including top-10 finishes from Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, and Martin Truex Jr., Toyota made its declaration about in-race speed.
- The more they figure things out, the closer the gap will get, so we’re going to have to keep moving very quickly, Daniels said. “To be honest, I know that if we won both stages and the race, you would say that we had a dominant day, but there were some quite tough cars right behind us, and the 45 was always there after lengthy runs. In my opinion, the distance is closer than it appears on paper.
- • Larson said he left the No. 5 team’s preseason meeting with his bell and that Daniels received another; the records appear to show Hendrick Motorsports winning four of the last five races in Vegas, at least giving the impression that the team’s four-car fleet may have to make an appearance on the route to Victory Lane in Sin City and other intermediate-sized tracks. According to Larson, a third is kept secure in the team’s hauler for special events like Sunday’s.
•”Hopefully, we’re going to be ringing that thing a lot this year,” Larson remarked in Victory Lane.