After Kyle Larson’s win at the Bristol Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon revealed the immense pressure behind the scenes as Larson powered to his second straight NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol on Sunday, April 13. Although Larson dominated the race, leading an astounding 421 of 500 laps, Gordon kept fearing the moment something might go wrong.
Jeff Gordon Had His Heart in His Mouth Watching Kyle Larson at Bristol
Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports, admitted he was never truly at ease until the checkered flag waved in Larson’s favor.
“As a driver and a team, you’re just waiting for [potential problems to suddenly occur],” Gordon said after Sunday’s race. “You’re telling yourself, ‘Man, please, no, please, no, please, no.’ But usually, it does happen, right? It’s almost inevitable when you have a dominating car like that that something happens.”
Larson’s win at Bristol marked his second consecutive win at the track and the third in his career there. However, from his own experience, Gordon knows all too well that even a dominant performance in racing, sometimes, isn’t enough.
Gordon said, “It’s almost like more often than not that the win doesn’t come in a dominating performance like that. So, yeah, you’re feeling every vibration, you know every lap car that you come up to, you just think that something is going to happen.”
Things almost went wrong when Larson got into a small problem with six laps to go. He also had a shaky few laps after a cycle of pit stops following the final green flag.
Gordon added, “He got in the wall with, like, I don’t know, five or six to go. So I think you’re really trying to tell yourself, ‘Hey, don’t make any mistakes here,’ but at the same time, you’re really hoping that the rest of the field doesn’t make any mistakes either.
“So, yeah, for me, I think it was just, like, when is it coming, when is it coming, because I want to be prepared, because I don’t want to be too upset when it comes, and it never came. You’re happy when you have that kind of a performance. You know, you kind of feel like it’s deserving to finish it off.”
In the end, Larson did walk away with the win, and that too with style after a very dominant display. Like runner-up Denny Hamlin said post-race, “The best car and the best driver won tonight.”