Kyle Larson holds off Christopher Bell’s assault for Las Vegas victory

The battle to be the first driver to clinch a spot in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Round came down to a mad dash to the finish as Christopher Bell chased down Kyle Larson in the final twenty laps of Sunday’s South Point 400 but was unable to complete the pass.

The win is Larson’s fourth of 2023 and second at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Bell and Larson, rivals in dirt track racing and former development drivers, were the top drivers Sunday as they qualified on the front row. While Larson swept the stages, Bell finished second and third in each before mounting his pursuit during the final green-flag run.

“He kicked my ass for a few years straight like every race,” Larson remarked about Bell in his post-race press conference. “I don’t know if I ever beat him. He made me work really hard to get better as a driver, especially on the dirt track stuff. We’ve had our run-ins along the way, just tight racing for wins and stuff, then now I feel like we actually get along and we talk quite a bit, then get to race with a lot of respect on Sundays on TV in front of millions of race fans.

“It’s cool. Just need to get to race with a guy like that. I’m sure he’ll be one of the guys to beat at Phoenix too when he’s in the Final Four.”

With the help of lapped traffic, Bell caught up to Larson by the final lap. Bell attempted to ride the high line along the wall as they entered turn three while Larson stayed low before moving up as they exited turn four. Coming to the finish, Bell tried to drop down only for Larson to follow suit, and a second overtake attempt on the inside came too late.

While an impressive defence, Larson admitted he “wasn’t confident” that he could keep Bell at bay but was thankful that lapped cars did not impede his progress.

“The #43 (Erik Jones) let us go, which I was very thankful for,” he commented. “The whole way down the back, I was hoping the #38 (Todd Gilliland) was going to run the middle or the top. I wanted that clean air for the bottom. When he pulled down to the bottom, I knew I couldn’t follow him because it was going to choke me down too much. I didn’t really know what to do at that point. I thought my best bet or an opportunity for me to at least hold on to the lead offer of four was to go to the middle and hope I had enough grip. I hadn’t been there that whole run.

“I peeled to the middle and was really loose, knew that Christopher was going to be able to get a run. Thankfully, he wasn’t able to get to my outside before the exit. Kind of looked in my mirror and had to zig and zag a little bit. He hit me square in the back bumper, kind of closed off the win for me. Got much closer than I wanted it to. Thankfully we were able to edge out a win. Thankfully, Christopher ran us really clean there off of (turn) four.”

Nearly every playoff driver scored a top ten, with Chris Buescher sneaking in after another contender in Ryan Blaney was disqualified for failing post-race inspection after finishing sixth. The left front shock on Blaney’s #12 did not conform to the length mandated by Section 14.11.3.5 of the rulebook, which states the left front extended damper length must be at least 22.55 inches (57.27 cm) for oval tracks.

The disqualification drops Blaney into a very precarious position as he is now fifty-seven points below the cut line. He is the second disqualification of 2023 after Kevin Harvick just two weeks prior at Talladega, a race ironically won by Blaney.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
2	1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
3	6	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
4	21	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	267	Running
5	10	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	267	Running
6	3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
7	8	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	267	Running
8	4	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
9	15	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
10	5	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	267	Running
11	9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
12	7	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	267	Running
13	13	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
14	36	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	267	Running
15	24	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
16	18	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	267	Running
17	16	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
18	28	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
19	33	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	267	Running
20	22	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
21	20	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
22	19	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
23	27	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
24	30	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
25	32	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
26	29	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	266	Running
27	23	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	266	Running
28	26	51	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	266	Running
29	34	15	Brennan Poole*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	266	Running
30	31	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	Running
31	35	9	Chase Elliott^	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	Running
32	17	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	263	Running
33	11	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	259	Running
34	14	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	144	Accident
35	25	42	Carson Hocevar*	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	110	Accident
36	12	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running (DSQ)