NCS: Kyle Larson dominates Bass Pro Shops Night Race; Truex, Keselowski, Gibbs and Burton fail to move on in playoffs - Speedway Digest

A clash of gladiators in the Last Great Colosseum ending the chances of four drivers to move on next week. Alex Bowman beat two other Hendrick drivers, Larson, and Byron in pole qualifying.

Bowman would easily clear from Larson who would battle the first two laps with Truex who had worked himself around Byron setting his sights on the second spot before Larson would scoot away from the No. 19 just as Nemechek would take the wall twice before spinning bringing out the first caution of the night.

On the restart Bowman would try to get away from Larson as Truex would once again try to take second. Larson would easily defend the position spending the next 20-plus laps tracking down Bowman taking it away on lap 33 for the first lead change of the night.

Larson would easily cruise to a stage one win lapping cars all the way up to the 23^rd position by the stage would come to a close, Bowman who started on the pole would wind up second followed by Bell, Truex and Byron rounding out the top-five.

Following the stage, Christopher Bell would gather enough stage points to lock himself into the round of 12.

Stage two would almost go flag to flag caution free until the closing laps of the stage when Logano would go for a spin with six laps remaining in the stage. During the caution all the leaders would make a stop cycling the lead to Tyler Reddick who didn’t pit.

On the restart Larson would easily dispense of Reddick in the first turn to take back to the lead of the final two laps of the stage to take home the second stage win of the night followed by Truex, Hamlin, Reddick and Bell rounding out the top-five finishers in stage two.

Bowmans seventh place finish in the second stage would also clinch enough points to move onto the round of 12.

Caution would come out for the fifth time when Berry and LaJoie would make contact sending the No. 7 spinning down the back into the inside wall causing right front damage. The team attempted to fix the car but ran out of time sending LaJoie to the garage ending Lajoie’s night and tenure with Spire Motorsports.

During the pit stops, Truex would leave pit road in second, but NASCAR would call a speeding penalty on the No. 19 sending them to the rear on the restart.

Truex night would go from bad to worse after stalling out on the restart before Larson would run up on the No. 19 machine putting Truex a lap down with 83 to go.

The final 163 laps would go caution free for Larson who would lap the entire field up to the 10^th position by the time the checkered flag would fall on Larson’s dominating win.

Elliott would come in second seven-plus second behind followed by Wallace, Hamlin and Bell.

Larson would also lead a race high of 462 laps, the most of any Hendrick Motorsports driver in the history of the company.

Resetting next week for Kansas Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. whose late race penalty put him out of the playoffs along with Burton who spent 78 laps in the garage. Keselowski would end up three laps down in 26^th place failing to move on along with Ty Gibbs who battled late to a 15^th place finish.

Note: Below the cutline to start the round of 12, Cindric, Suarez, Bowman and Briscoe

The NASCAR Rounds of 12 Playoffs moves onto Kansas Speedway next Sunday, September 29^th at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA Network.