Kyle Larson wins, 2 NASCAR champs eliminated from playoffs - ESPN

Just minutes after Kyle Larson crossed the finish line on the most dominating victory ever for a Hendrick Motorsports driver, his team rushed his 9-year-old son to the winning Chevrolet.

Owen Larson was placed on the window, half in the car, half out, as his dad drove a victory lap around Bristol Motor Speedway with his son holding the No. 1 finger in the air. He later joined his dad atop the car during Saturday night's victory lane celebration.

«We had a little boys' weekend here this weekend,» Larson said. «We'll bring some hardware home tonight, too.»

Larson dominated the first elimination race of NASCAR's 10-race playoff portion of the season by leading all but 38 of the 500 laps at the track in Bristol, Tennessee — the most laps led ever in a race by a Hendrick driver. It easily moved him into the second round of the playoffs, while former NASCAR champions Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr., as well as Ty Gibbs and Harrison Burton, were eliminated from the 16-driver field.

And then there were 12. <a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/NASCARPlayoffs?src=hash&ref_src=» https:>#NASCARPlayoffs

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«I've had a lot of good cars since I've come to Hendrick Motorsports, but man, that was just great execution all weekend by the team,» Larson said. «We dominate a lot of races but we might not close them all out, so it feels really good to close one out here.»

The first of three elimination races in the 10-race playoffs began with Denny Hamlin, Truex, Keselowski and Burton all below the cutline and facing elimination from the 16-driver field.

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner with four career wins at Bristol, was never really worried and finished fourth.

«My aspiration was winning,» Hamlin said.