BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Larson’s first chance to get a big win in NASCAR ended with him claiming a controversial win.

With a shot at grabbing his first Nationwide Series win Saturday, he wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

Especially not against Kyle Busch.

Larson stalked Busch over the closing laps around Bristol Motor Speedway waiting to make a move. It came as they closed in on the finish line, and Larson made a last-gasp push on the high side that fell short as Busch held on for his second win of the season.

But in chasing the win the right way, the 20-year-old Larson cleaned up some of the criticism that had followed him from Daytona last month after spinning C.E. Falk III on the final lap of the “Battle at the Beach” late model race.

“You certainly want to try to win races the right way,” Busch said. “He played it smart today. That was good on his end. I think a lot of people have been looking at him to try to see if he’s going to be to a wrecker or a checker. Today he didn’t get the checkers, but that’s how you get them. You drive into the corner, or drive into the back of me, I’m going to be here for a while and if he keeps coming up through the ranks, he’s not going to have fun dealing with me every week.

“But right now? I’m going to race him as hard as he raced me, but just as clean as he raced me because he didn’t put a fender on me all day.”

Kalitta leads NHRA qualifying

At Gainesville, Fla., Doug Kalitta qualified first in the NHRA Gatornationals with a run of 3.779 seconds at a top speed of 326.32 mph.

Kalitta will face rookie Leah Pruett in the first round of the eliminations today.

Cruz Pedregon topped the Funny Car field, Mike Edwards led the Pro Stock competition, and Matt Smith was the fastest in the Pro Stock Motorcycle season opener.

F1 qualifying delayed

At Melbourne, Australia, qualifying for the Formula One season opener will be completed today after a series of rain delays halted Saturday’s sessions.