2024 Bristol II Race Report

The 2024 Bristol II Race Report contains a lot of Kyle Larson. A lot. Larson dominated by leading 92.4% of all laps run. Only three other drivers led laps: Alex Bowman (34 laps or 6.8% of the race), Tyler Reddick led (3 laps/0.6% of the race) and Bubba Wallace (1 lap/ 0.2% of the race.)

Caution/Lead-O-Gram

Welcome to the most boring caution/lead-o-gram we’ve had all season — especially surprising for a Bristol night race.

Cautions

There were only three accidents along with the two stage-end cautions. Each accident involved relatively few cars. The graph below shows the numbers and types of cautions at Bristol over the last 10 years.

This data shows that the changes in Bristol racing didn’t start with the Next Gen car, which was introduced in 2022, but in late 2020. So anyone who claims the problem is the car or the tire is wrong.

Lead Changes

Only eight lead changes appear on the 2024 Bristol II Race Report. That is the fewest lead changes since the fall 2008 race at Bristol when Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch combined to lead all but one lap of the race.

Of the eight lead changes, there were:

• 5 lead changes on pit road during yellow-flag pit stops. Bowman led the first 32 laps. Then, because he had the first pit box, he took the lead during pit stops.
• 1 lead change was inherited due to Reddick staying out and inheriting the lead toward the end.
• 1 lead change happened on the restart because Reddick stayed out and Larson (and others) easily passed him on new tires.
• 1 lead change was under the green flag. That was Larson’s pass of Bowman on lap 33.

And that’s your 2024 Bristol II race report!