Larson storms to a dominant Kansas win, tightening his grip on the NASCAR Cup Series title race

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — There were times over the past year or so that Kyle Larson probably wondered whether he’d ever win a race again, let alone defend his NASCAR Cup Series title. He went 51 races without reaching victory lane, even though he always felt as though he was close.

Now, Larson has won two of the last three after his dominant victory at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

And he’s in the pole position for another championship.

People were interested in these podcasts

After sweeping each of the first two stages, breaking his own track record by leading 235 laps in the race, and passing Chase Briscoe for the lead with seven remaining and holding it the rest of the way, Larson has a 26-point cushion over Denny Hamlin heading to next weekend’s race at Las Vegas, a comfortable margin with only six races remaining in the playoffs.

“I said it kind of in Gateway: I felt like we were close,” Larson said of his drought-ending win outside St. Louis. “I didn’t feel like it was 51 races and then, yeah, just it seems like we were just building and ready to kind of capitalize if we got a moment like this, where our car and everything kind of came together.

“So just proud of everybody for working so hard for so long now, and then proud of just the execution that they’ve put in here.”

The No. 5 team couldn’t have executed a whole lot better on Sunday.

After practice and qualifying was washed out the previous day, Larson began on the outside of the front row, thanks to metrics that combined his second-place finish the previous week at Bristol with ownership points. Larson immediately went to the front when the green flag was dropped and, other than during pit-stop cycles, pretty much spent the day there.

Advertisement Advertisement

Briscoe did catch him with 30 laps to go, and even got around Larson, but his car began to get so loose that he kept brushing against the wall. That gave Larson the opening he needed to get back around the No. 19 car and drive off to victory.

He wound up with the maximum of 76 points on the day, an almost mythic number in the revamped version of the Chase playoffs, but one that became a reality when Larson took the checkered flag for a record-tying fourth time at Kansas Speedway.

“Nobody wants to go through the struggle,” said Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, “but the struggle can be so constructive, if you let it be, if you lean in the right ways. We have a great company with a lot of great people on the shop floor, that are in teams, engine shop, car shop, leadership — everybody having the check of, ‘OK, we’re not where we need to be, so let’s not play the blame game. Let’s look within, and how do we elevate our process, our setups, just digging into all the things you have to do?’

“The sport goes in cycles,” Daniels continued. “Somebody told me a long time ago, when the sport goes in cycles, when you’re on top, you’ve got to take the best of it, and when you’re not, you’ve got to be patient and be ready when it is your turn.”

That patience — and confidence — has paid off at the perfect time.

Advertisement Advertisement

Larson heads to Las Vegas having won there three times in the Cup Series, second only to Joey Logano among active drivers, while his Hendrick Motorsports team has reached victory lane nine times, more than any other organization.