By AMANDA VINCENT
Kyle Larson defended his Hollywood Casino 400 win from last season by dominating and winning the race, the fourth of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase, at Kansas Speedway on Sunday. It was Larson’s second win of the season.
“Huge thank you to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet,” Larson said. “Congratulations to everybody at the Hendrick Automotive Group, too, celebrating their 50th anniversary. We’ve gotten a couple special wins here for Mr. H (team owner Rick Hendrick), and I’m glad to do this one for all the 10,000 plus employees at Hendrick.”
Austin Cindric finished second after taking the position from Chase Briscoe on lap 265 of the 267-lap race. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe finished third and fourth, respectively. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five.
Larson led 235 laps. His nearest lap leader was Briscoe with 23 laps-led. Briscoe took the lead from Larson on lap 238. But on lap 261, Larson retook the top spot.
“Yeah, it was great,” Larson said. “Obviously, starting on the front row helped a lot, as well as just controlling the race, having good restarts and great power by our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy. It wasn’t easy. I know it looked easy at times. There were definitely runs that were easier, but when the sun came out, it got difficult just to maintain my grip. I would stretch out, and then, I’d catch traffic and I would just not be very good. I guess that the way that run just played out, there. Maybe coming out in traffic and the pace being down a little bit helped me live a little bit longer. I think it’s just sometimes easier to be the hunter rather than being hunted. I could see he (Briscoe) was starting to struggle in front of me and still pushing really hard. I was just trying to take it easy, let him make a mistake and build some runs on exit. We were able to do that. Just proud of the team.”
Larson won the 80-lap opening stage. Hamlin was second after closing on Larson in lapped traffic at stage-end.
Larson started the race on the front row and took the lead from pole sitter Joey Logano on lap one. Larson, then, dominated the stage. He had a lead of more than six seconds by a lap-35 competition caution.
Larson continued to lead throughout the 85-lap second stage and completed a stage sweep with a stage-two win at lap 165. Cindric was second at stage-end.
Stage two included a caution when Noah Gragson blew his engine on lap 115 and a yellow flag for a multi-car crash involving Carson Hocevar, Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., Josh Berry, Erik Jones, Zane Smith and Ty Gibbs on lap 122, the restart lap after the Gragson caution.
Christopher Bell finished the race in the sixth position. Hendrick Motorsports duo William Byron and Chase Elliott finished seventh and eighth, Wallace ninth and Ryan Preece 10th.
