Kyle Larson Wins at Kansas to Stretch NASCAR Cup Chase Lead

Kyle Larson passed Chase Briscoe with seven laps left to win the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway and move 26 points clear in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase.

Kyle Larson passed Chase Briscoe with seven laps to go Sunday and won the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, taking charge of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1. It was his second victory in three races.

The win was Larson's second of the season and the 34th of his career, tying Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for 26th on the all-time list. It was also his fourth at the 1.5-mile Kansas track. He now sits 26 points clear of Denny Hamlin, who entered the Chase as the top seed, with Christopher Bell 50 points back in third after his sixth-place finish.

Larson controlled the day in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, sweeping the first two stages and leading 235 laps. He also set the fastest lap of the race, 30.076 seconds on Lap 2, and collected the maximum 76 points on offer.

The outcome was still in doubt after the final round of green-flag pit stops. Larson followed Briscoe down pit road on Lap 216 and regained the top spot when the cycle finished, but he scraped the wall early in the last run. Briscoe, who had been 1.5 seconds behind, tracked down the leader and moved ahead on Lap 238 of 267, holding the point for 23 laps in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His car went loose late in the run, and Larson went to the inside on Lap 261 to take the lead for good.

"It's just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted," Larson said, explaining that he found lines that let him settle in and manage his tires once Briscoe went ahead. "I was going to be happy with second with how the race went, but to get the lead, that's a big deal for the points."

Briscoe's day soured further when he hit the wall in the closing laps, and both Cindric and Hamlin got past before the checkered flag. That left Briscoe fourth, with Ryan Blaney fifth. "Just went really, really loose," Briscoe said, and he now sits eighth in the standings, 123 points behind Larson. Blaney is fifth in points, 91 back of the leader.

Cindric, with arguably the fastest long-run car in the field, crossed the line 0.565 seconds behind. He lost ground by pitting one lap later than Larson and Briscoe and was 4.6 seconds adrift when the stops cycled out, spending the rest of the distance chasing the gap. His 52 points left him tied with Bubba Wallace for ninth in the Chase, 140 points behind. "I wish I would have had at least a shot at it," Cindric said.

William Byron finished seventh, with Chase Elliott, Wallace and Ryan Preece completing the top 10. Tyler Reddick climbed from 33rd in a poorly handling Toyota early on to finish 11th, a comeback slowed by a blown green-flag pit stop in the final cycle.

Joey Logano started from the pole after rain canceled time trials, but he finished 20th and dropped from third to fourth in the standings, 67 points off the lead. Ten of the 16 Chase drivers now trail Larson by 111 points or more. Carson Hocevar, fourth in Stage 1, was caught in a six-car wreck on a Lap 122 restart, and heavy splitter damage on his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet left him 33rd, falling three spots to 11th in points, 150 back. Daniel Suarez ran 14th and is last among Chase drivers, 187 points behind.