Harvick held on to finish third ahead of Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano, who both charged into the top five late in Monday’s race.
But for Larson and Truex, who won the first two stages of Monday’s race, two late-race cautions and separate speeding penalties shuffled them both out of contention for the victory.
Larson’s penalty came after a caution with 80 laps to go, sparked by a flat tire on rookie Erik Jones’ machine that sent him hard into the outside wall and left A.J. Allmendinger with nowhere to go but straight into the back of Jones’ Toyota entering turn one.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points leader, who had the No. 1 pit stall for the race, took a straight-line shot out of his pit box on the ensuing round of pit stops that ultimately led to his speeding ticket.
While he rallied back to come home sixth after a late call for two tires, Larson lamented what could have been after leading the first 202 laps from the pole on Monday.
“I don’t know if we had the car to beat. I thought early on in the race, before all the rubber got laid down, we were really good,” Larson admitted. “In the middle part of the race, I didn’t think we were very good. And then there at the end, I got the top going really good. Then I got that speeding penalty and set us back.”
“We had to gamble on that last stop and take two lefts (to make up track position) and we hadn’t done that all day. The balance honestly wasn’t that bad on two tires, but four tires just had a little more grip around the bottom for a little bit longer than we did. … All in all, it was another good run for us. I would have liked to have a top-five, but it was a good points day for us.”
Truex was less fortunate, with his speeding penalty coming on the final round of pit stops, after yellow flew for the spinning Paul Menard in turn four with 39 to go.
While he won the race off pit road, Truex had to restart from the tail end of the longest line and had to fight through heavy traffic for an eighth-place finish.
“We were going for it, you know?” Truex said of pit road and the penalty. “I wish we could have had a shot there … just to see if we could have won. This is the best run we’ve had here (at Bristol) in a long time, though. It’s bittersweet.”
“I wish we could have seen if we could have beat the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). We were close there before that last caution, but it is what it is. You try to get what you can get, but sometimes you cross the line and today, we crossed the line. All in all, it was an awesome day and a lot of fun.”
Of note, Dale Earnhardt Jr. crashed out of the race on a lap 218 restart, hitting the wall in turn one after oil from his car coated the front tires and left him with no way to steer his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet. He finished 38th.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to action on April 30 at Richmond Int’l Raceway, with the running of the Toyota Owners 400.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
