“It took him forever”: Kenny Wallace underlines Kyle Larson’s “funny” lapping in the NextGen car at Bristol 

Former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace outlined the "funny" aspect of Kyle Larson's Round of 16 elimination race. The Hendrick Motorsports driver clinched the Bass Pro Shops Night Race and has advanced to the Round of 12, slated to kick off at Kansas Speedway.

The 'World's Fastest Half-Mile' oval returned to NASCAR for its 127th edition of Cup Series racing. The 500-lap event, unlike the majority of races on the 2024 calendar, witnessed few wrecks and didn't propel into overtime. Larson swept the race by acing all stages and leading 462 laps before parking his #5 Chevy in the victory lane.

Wallace took accommodation near the Bristol Motor Speedway and savored the drivers battling for the Round of 12 in the elimination race. During 'Coffee with Kenny,' the former NASCAR driver outlined that going to a racetrack to watch races lets one see everything that isn't broadcasted on TV.

He then pointed toward Larson's "funny" racing, involving multiple "close calls" to prevent getting a lap down, and said (via X).

"I was able to watch (Bristol race live), it was funny right, when Kyle Larson was lapping people. It took him forever to get past one car because he was down on the bottom or he was on the top and they (HMS) did not want to get down a lap. There was a lot of close calls," Wallace said (3:01).

Kyle Larson has jumped eight places to emerge atop the 2024 Cup Series drivers' standings.

"We just executed a flawless race": Kyle Larson after etching history with his dominant Bristol performance

Larson had a poor playoff-opener run at the Atalanta Motor Speedway. He was given a DNF after the #5 Chevy got loose while exiting Turn 2 on Lap 56, collecting Chase Briscoe's #14 Ford as well. The HMS driver surged to 12th place finish after starting 20th in the next debacle at Watkins Glen.

Larson's Camaro registered the second-fastest speed during elimination race's qualifying, while his teammate Alex Bowman locked the P1 spot. The latter led 34 laps before the 2021 Cup Series champion took charge, paving the way for a historic win in the NextGen era.

Kyle Larson's Margin of Victory, which stood at 7.088 seconds over Chase Elliott in P2, is the largest gap of win since NextGen began racing in 2022. After wrapping up his dominant Bristol run, the Californian expressed being "proud" of his team's "flawless" execution.

“Just proud of the race team, proud of the pit crew, and proud of myself. I feel like we just executed a flawless race. We didn't make any mistakes on pit road. The few times that we came down, our car—I don't even think we adjusted on it once throughout the night. And I felt like I hit my marks about every lap. So, you know, it's fun when you can execute like that and turn it into a historic night,” Larson said via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on X (0:05).

Larson is ranked 1st in the playoffs and will enter the Round of 12 battle at Kansas Speedway with a 39-point cushion over the cutline.