Kyle Larson honors late team member with Xfinity victory at Bristol

Kyle Larson won this weekend’s (April 12) Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, marking his 15th career series win. After it was all done and dusted, the Hendrick Motorsports ace took to Instagram and dedicated his win to Jon Edwards, who passed away last Thursday.

Edwards was a longtime member and one of the most loved employees at Hendrick Motorsports. He was the PR lead for Larson’s No. 5 team and a Director of Communications at the North Carolina-based outfit. Needless to say, Kyle Larson’s victory weighed heavily on the entire HMS camp.

Larson posted a few post-race snaps from Bristol on Instagram with the following caption:

“For Jon 💙”

Kyle Larson wasn’t the only one who mourned Edwards. Four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, who now serves as the Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, shared his feelings in the wake of Edwards' passing. He wrote (via X),

"I’m devastated by the loss of my dear friend, Jon. For almost three decades, we were side by side through every high and low, every celebration, and every challenge."

Larson now hopes to win Sunday’s (April 13) Cup Series race at Bristol for Jon Edwards. Named Food City 500, the 500-lap feature will be televised on Fox Sports 1 from 3 pm ET onwards. Live radio updates will be available only on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin is the defending champion of the event. He is currently on a two-race winning streak, so if he wins the race, it is going to get him a remarkable three-peat, a feat that his teammate Christopher Bell pulled off a few weeks ago.

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Kyle Larson misses out on making history at Bristol Motor Speedway

Kyle Larson got tapped to run all three races over this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. He had the chance to win them all and replicate a feat that only Kyle Busch has been able to pull off in 2010 and 2017.

Despite having fresher tires than the eventual race winner Chandler Smith, Larson fell short of bagging the victory at Bristol’s Truck Series event by a margin of 0.934 seconds. As a result, the Elk Grove native had to settle for a runner-up finish, while Corey Heim, Tyler Ankrum, and Ben Rhodes made the top five.

Reflecting on his performance at the half-mile oval, Larson said (via motorsport.com),

“We fell back there on that long run to end the second stage. I got super tight and then I sped on pit road. Honestly, that probably helped us because then we were still kind of buried for the next caution and we pitted so we had a little bit of an advantage to get towards the front. I thought it would be more of an advantage than it was.”

As of today, Kyle Larson owns four victories in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, with his most recent triumph coming at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March 2025. The only other driver among the Cup Series regulars to win a Truck Series race this year is Richard Childress Racing icon Kyle Busch.