Kyle Larson has further cemented his place atop the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, winning at Kansas after a late battle with Chase Briscoe.
Larson lost the lead to Briscoe with 30 laps to go but ran him back down, reclaiming the top spot with seven laps left in the race. Larson earned maximum points possible by winning the race, sweeping the stages, and even securing the fastest lap bonus. He was the first driver to earn the maximum 76 points in a race during the 2026 season.
“I really thought when Chase got by, he was just going to stretch out, but I got some lines going where I could settle in and try to take care of my tires,” said Larson. “I think it’s just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted. I think a lot of the same, like, with me out front, I’m just defending and trying to guess on what lines are fast. When he got in front of me, I could see he started getting really loose.
“Yeah, that was fun. That was such a good day. Max points. I was going to be happy with second with how the race went, but get the lead, that’s a big deal for the points.”
Watch: Larson thrilled with extending Chase lead after Kansas victory
Larson also broke the track record for most laps led in a single Cup race at Kansas, leading 235 of 267 laps (the previous record was 221, also set by Larson).
Austin Cindric enjoyed a huge day and finished a strong second, with Denny Hamlin third, Chase Briscoe slipping back to fourth, and Ryan Blaney fifth.
Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, and Ryan Preece filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Larson leads Hamlin by 27 points in the championship standings, with Bell 49 points back of the lead in third. Logano fell to 20th after a late tyre failure and dropped to fourth in the standings, 64 points behind Larson.
Stage 1
Logano and Larson led the field to the green flag, with Larson taking the early advantage after Hocevar almost immediately went three wide for the lead.
Once again, Reddick struggled mightily, falling outside the top 30. At the other end of the spectrum, Blaney was one of the biggest early movers after starting 25th.
Larson held a lead that exceeded six seconds in the opening round, but after Cindric charged from 11th to second, he began to cut into at that margin.
At Lap 35, a planned competition caution flew due to the fact that there was no practice and qualifying on Saturday.
The first lead change happened during the yellow-flag pit stops, as Chastain stayed out an extra lap and briefly took the lead.
The rest of the stage ran caution-free, even with Stenhouse getting into the wall right in front of the race leader.
Larson won Stage 1, followed by Hamlin, Cindric, Hocevar, Bell, Logano, Byron, Elliott, Gibbs, and Blaney — all Chase drivers.
Stage 2
Larson held the lead on pit road, while Bowman suffered an uncontrolled tire penalty that sent him to the back.
During the run, old rivals Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen found each other, with SVG sliding up in front of Hill and putting him into the wall. Hill was livid over the radio while the team tried to calm him down.
The first natural yellow of the race came over 100 laps into the event, as Noah Gragson lost an engine. Smoke billowed out of the No. 4, blanketing the track and sending him sideways and onto the apron.
On the restart that followed, there was a multi-car pileup with Hocevar at the epicenter of it. Hocevar got a bump from Keselowski and then shot up the track towards the middle lane. It was unclear whether the contact unsettled Hocevar or whether he moved deliberately toward the middle lane, but once there, he collided with Wallace and Gibbs.
Hocevar and Wallace spun, with Z. Smith, Berry, and Jones also collected beyond Gibbs. Surprisingly, all cars were able to continue on, but Hocevar was clearly damaged and Berry lost multiple laps due to repairs.
Once the race resumed, Larson continued to dominate, sweeping the stages.
As Larson won Stage 2, he was followed by Cindric, Hamlin, Briscoe, Bell, Byron, Blaney, Logano, Gibbs, and Keselowski.
Stage 3
Larson now had to fend off Briscoe for the race lead, while Reddick’s No. 45 finally came to life and he entered the top five.
Briscoe stayed close to Larson, and even got alongside as they reached lapped traffic. Briscoe ended up scrubbing the wall as he tried to get a run on Larson. Their battle brought Cindric into the battle, making it a three-way fight for the race lead.
Preece began the round of green-flag stops with just over 50 laps to go. Larson and Briscoe pitted together, with Larson staying ahead in the race off pit road.
Reddick’s great comeback fell apart with a slow 18-second stop, but there were no penalties.
Larson finally retook the lead after Blaney pitted with 45 laps to go, with Briscoe just over a second behind. However, he quickly erased the deficit, with Briscoe passing Larson with 30 laps to go.
However, Larson did not give up, keeping pace with Briscoe. Both drivers touched the wall as the battle tightened, and Larson finally clawed his way back by with just seven laps left in the race.
Briscoe kept getting up into the wall, falling back behind Cindric and Hamlin in the closing laps.
Larson captured the checkered flag, just half-a-second ahead of Cindric in the runner-up spot. This is Larson’s 34th career NASCAR Cup Series win.
Watch: Complete Kansas domination! Larson earns max points day
2026 NASCAR Cup Kansas II race results
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