BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Larson was not motivated by a frustrating loss at Homestead weeks ago. No, he wanted to go out and deliver a dominant win at Bristol for a different reason.
He wanted to win one for Jon Edwards, the longtime Hendrick Motorsports public relations leader who passed away earlier this week.
MORE: Full Bristol results
Larson dominantly achieved this goal by leading 277 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning stage 2, and outright putting on a show for the No. 17 team.
So how did it feel?
"Damn good," Larson told CW Sports after the race. "It's awesome. I wish I could have won last night (in the Truck race) but just came up a little bit short. Cool to get a win this weekend for Jon and everybody who's been a part of his life.
"We got one more tomorrow. It'd be nothing better than to cap it off with a Cup win for Jon and all of Hendrick Motorsports."
Larson was like a man possessed Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. He won the pole for the Xfinity Series race and immediately began putting distance between himself and the rest of the field early in stage 1.
The former Cup Series champion had a 3.8-second lead over Justin Allgaier in second by Lap 73 of the Xfinity race. He had a 10-second lead over Connor Zilisch in third place.
By the time the caution waved for a crash on Lap 76, Larson had lapped all but 13 of his fellow drivers. The only reason he didn't win the opening stage of the race is that he headed down pit road for fresh tires while Sam Mayer stayed out to gain track position.
Larson took back control at the start of the second stage, and he never gave it up. He delivered the win, checked off this important goal, and celebrated with the No. 17 team.
Now, he just has one more thing to accomplish on Sunday afternoon.
"I've been happy to see the smiling faces and everybody talking positively of Jon this week," Larson said. "It's great to get a win tonight, and I would love nothing more to get to celebrate with the (No.) 5 team tomorrow in honor of Jon."
This dominant win on Saturday evening was actually the second opportunity for a Hendrick Motorsports driver to pay tribute to the late Edwards after delivering under immense pressure.
Teammate Alex Bowman won the pole during Cup Series qualifying and then said during his TV interview that it was done for Edwards.
"Definitely want to dedicate this to Jon Edwards," Bowman told Fox Sports' Regan Smith. "Huge loss for everybody at HMS and for his family and everybody that was close to him.
"He was probably my favorite person at HMS, one of the good guys for sure."