Kyle Larson capped off a masterful run from pole position in a dominant Cup victory in the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 11.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a dominant race-high 221 of 267 scheduled laps at Kansas. He both dominated and swept the event’s first two stages periods from the pole position. He was outmuscled by teammate Chase Elliott at the start of the final stage period with 94 laps remaining.
But Larson capitalized on Elliott’s slow pit service within the final 70 laps. He went on to retain the lead through three consecutive caution periods. This was due, in part, to on-track carnages that followed suit, beginning with 67 laps remaining.
Larson motored away from Christopher Bell and the field during the final restart with 49 laps remaining. He had enough horsepower, fuel and tire wear for the remainder of the event. He easily cruised to his third Cup Series victory of the 2025 season and his third at Kansas.
On-track qualifying on Saturday determined the starting lineup. Kyle Larson notched his first Cup pole position of the 2025 season with a pole-winning lap at 183.730 mph in 29.391 seconds. Joining Larson on the front row at Kansas was Chris Buescher. Buescher clocked in his best qualifying lap at 183.374 mph in 29.448 seconds.
Prior to the event, several drivers dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. They included Josh Berry, Chase Briscoe, Ty Dillon, Ty Gibbs, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Brad Keselowski and Zane Smith
Green Flag
When the green flag waved at Kansas and the race started, pole-sitter Kyle Larson jumped ahead of Chris Buescher through the frontstretch. He proceeded to lead through the first two turns. The field fanned out to multiple lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. Larson, however, retained the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Larson then proceeded to lead the first lap while Christopher Bell battled and overtook Buescher for the runner-up spot.
On the sixth lap, the Kansas event’s first caution flew. AJ Allmendinger, who was racing within the top-30 mark, had huge smoke billowing out from his No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet entry and dropped fluid off of Turn 4. This terminated his run due to the engine dying. At the moment of caution, Larson was leading over Bell, Buescher, William Byron and Joey Logano. Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez were scored in the top 10.
The start of the next restart on the 10th lap at Kansas featured Larson and Bell dueling for the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns. Bell tried to muscle ahead from the outside lane. After dueling with Bell through the backstretch. Larson then muscled ahead and slid his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entry in front of Bell’s No. 20 Reser’s Toyota Camry XSE entry. This allowed the former to retain the lead for the following lap. As Larson led Bell, Buescher started to reel in Bell for the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, the field behind fanned out while jostling for early spots.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson extended his early advantage to more than a second over Bell while Buescher, Byron and Blaney were racing in the top five. Behind, Bubba Wallace was up in sixth place ahead of Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry, the latter of whom rallied from starting at the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment, while Ryan Preece, who was among select names who pitted during the first caution period, was up to 11th place.
Meanwhile, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Carson Hocevar and Austin Dillon occupied top-15 spots. Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski and Zane Smith trailed in the top 20. Behind, Ross Chastain was mired in 21st place ahead of Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Noah Gragson and Justin Haley. Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Jesse Love and Ty Dillon were in the top-30 mark. In addition, Corey Heim, who was making his first of select Cup starts for 23XI Racing, was mired back in 35th place in between teammate Riley Herbst and John Hunter Nemechek.
At the Lap 35 mark, Larson stabilized his lead at Kansas to a second over Bell while select names that included Wallace, Berry, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Nemechek, Love, Michael McDowell and Chastain peeled off the racetrack to pit their respective entries. More names that included Noah Gragson, Cindric, Justin Haley, Keselowski, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Buescher, Logano, Elliott, Hocevar, Reddick, Byron, Blaney and Ty Gibbs pitted over the following four laps before the leader Larson pitted on Lap 40.
Bell, Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also pitted with Larson. Wallace received a penalty for a tire rolling into another competitor’s pit box and interfering with a competitor’s pit service. Love received a penalty for driving through too many pit boxes while exiting his own. Stenhouse also received a penalty for having crew members over the pit wall too soon.
On Lap 42, Bowman, who assumed the lead for the previous two laps, pitted his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet entry. This allowed Kyle Busch to cycle into the lead at Kansas. Busch, who led a single lap, would then surrender the lead by Lap 44 to pit. Denny Hamlin, who pitted during the first caution period, assumed the lead. By the time Hamlin, who led two laps, pitted under green along with teammate Chase Briscoe and Todd Gilliland, Ty Dillon cycled into the lead by Lap 45.
Larson would track down Dillon and cycle back into the lead at Kansas by Lap 48. Both Dillon and Herbst opted to remain on the track and stretch their fuel tank to the conclusion of the first stage period. Byron and Bell assumed second and third on the track, respectively. Dillon, who received a huge bump in the rear by Wallace through the backstretch, dropped to fourth place just past the Lap 50 mark.
At the Lap 60 mark, Larson led by two seconds over teammate Byron. Bell, Elliott and Blaney were in the top five. Behind, Cindric, Bowman, Buescher, Preece and Logano followed suit in the top 10. Larson continued to extend his lead to more than five seconds by Lap 70.
By then, Byron, who blew a right-rear tire exiting the backstretch and spun his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet entry while trying to enter pit road without drawing a caution on Lap 66, had plummeted to 32nd place and dropped out of the lead lap category. In addition, Ty Dillon had fallen back to 30th place while Herbst, who pitted under green, was down in 37th place.
Conclusion of Stage 1
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson, who led by three seconds, cruised to his seventh Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Teammate Elliott overtook Bell, claiming the runner-up spot. Blaney and Cindric were also in the top five. Bowman, Hamlin, Preece, Logano and Zane Smith settled in the top 10, respectively.
By then, 20 of 38 drivers were on the lead lap. Notably, drivers including Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones, Byron, Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek and Bubba Wallace were mired a lap behind.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field at Kansas, led by Larson, returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first ahead of Elliott, Blaney, Bell and Bowman while Cindric, Preece, Hamlin, Logano and Zane Smith followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Carson Hocevar received a penalty for equipment interference.
Stage 2
The second stage period started on Lap 88 as Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson and Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes. Elliott would then use the outside lane approaching the frontstretch to lead the following lap.
The duel between Larson and Elliott allowed Blaney, Bell and Bowman to close in as both Larson and Elliott continued to duel by the Lap 90 mark. Larson then muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 prior to the following lap. Meanwhile, Elliott was being challenged by Bell, Blaney, Bowman and Preece for the runner-up spot.
By Lap 100 of the Kansas race, Larson extended his lead up to two seconds over Bell while Elliott, Blaney and Preece trailed in the top five. Behind, Berry occupied sixth place in front of Bowman, who made on-track with Zane Smith, earlier. Hamlin, who reported clutch issues earlier, was in eighth place ahead of Smith and Keselowski.
Meanwhile, Buescher, after enduring a slow pit service during the first stage break period, was back in 11th place. ahead of Kyle Busch, Cindric, Hocevar and Haley while Logano, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Noah Gragson and Chase Briscoe were mired in the top 20 ahead of Chastain, Gilliland, Wallace, Erik Jones and Suarez. In addition, Byron, who was mired a lap down, trailed in 27th place.
Fifteen laps later, Larson’s advantage grew to more than five seconds over Bell. Bell, Blaney and Berry were in the top five ahead of Hamlin, Bowman, Zane Smith, Keselowski and Preece, respectively.
Another five laps later, another cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Cindric pitted his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry from the top-15 mark. Gragson and Zane Smith would pit during the next lap before Zane Smith, Chastain, Austin Dillon and Love pitted by Lap 123. Bell and Reddick would also pit by Lap 124 before front-runners Elliott, Blaney, Buescher, Kyle Busch and Briscoe pitted by Lap 125.
Larson then pitted from the lead by Lap 126 along with Berry, Bowman, Keselowski, Logano, Gilliland, Wallace, Nemechek and Hamlin before Preece, who led a lap for himself, pitted during the following lap. This allowed Hocevar to cycle into the lead ahead of his Spire Motorsports teammate Haley before the latter pitted by Lap 129.
By the time Hocevar pitted under green just past the Lap 130 mark, Larson cycled into the lead. Larson would proceed to lead the event’s halfway between Laps 133 and 134 while teammate Elliott, Bell, Blaney and Berry followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who endured a 17.4-second pit stop due to his crew members dropping lug nuts, was mired back in 10th place. He was behind Bowman, Keselowski, Zane Smith and Buescher while Kyle Busch, Preece, Logano, Reddick, Chastain, Gragson, Haley, Austin Dillon, Briscoe and Hocevar were scored in the top 20, respectively.
Through the Lap 145 mark, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over teammate Elliott while Bell, Blaney and Berry continued to occupy the remaining top-five spots on the track. Despite having his advantage over Elliott decrease to a second towards Lap 155, Larson, who earlier reported vibration concerns, maintained the top spot.
Conclusion of Stage 2
When the second stage period at Kansas concluded on Lap 165, Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, fended off teammate Elliott by 0.079 seconds to notch his second Cup stage victory of the day and the eighth of the 2025 season. Elliott settled in second ahead of Blaney, Berry and Bell while Keselowski, Bowman, Hamlin, Zane Smith and Preece were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 18 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Elliott edged Larson to exit pit road first as they were followed by Blaney, Berry, Keselowski, Bell, Preece, Logano, Zane Smith and Bowman, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Berry was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 94 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Elliott and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch before Elliott used the inside lane to muscle his No. 9 Amazon Prime Video Chevrolet entry ahead through Turns 3 and 4. As Elliott led the following lap, the field fanned out to multiple lanes while Keselowski moved up to third place in front of Bell, Blaney and Logano. Keselowski would proceed to overtake Larson for the runner-up spot as Bell, Blaney, Bowman, Preece, Logano, Zane Smith and Hamlin occupied the top-10 spots while Elliott led with 90 laps remaining.
Then with 73 laps remaining, the caution flew when Keselowski, who was racing in the runner-up spot and trying to reel in Elliott, got loose after he blew a right-rear tire and smacked the outside wall entering Turn 1. Keselowski’s incident resulted in his No. 6 Allegra/Kroger Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry being towed to the garage. This took him out of contention, allowing Larson, Hamlin, Bell and Blaney to move up into the top-five mark in the leaderboard.
During the latest caution period, the leaders led by Elliott returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Bell edged Larson off of pit road first while Blaney, Logano, Bowman, Briscoe, Preece, Zane Smith, Buescher and Reddick followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Elliott exited pit road outside of the top-10 mark due to enduring a slow pit service, where his pit crew had issues changing the right-rear tire. In addition, Hamlin stalled his No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE entry while trying to exit his pit stall as part of his ongoing clutch issues. The recent clutch issues resulted in Hamlin’s entry being pushed to the garage, dropping him out of contention for a strong result.
The start of the next restart with 67 laps remaining did not last long when Ty Dillon, who was racing in the middle of the pack, slipped up the track entering the first two turns, barely clipped Cody Ware and smacked the outside wall, where they collected Daniel Suarez in the process. At the moment of caution, Larson was ruled the leader over the latest scoring loop over both Logano and Bell.
The next restart with 61 laps remaining also did not last long after Kyle Busch, who was racing just outside the top-10 mark and mired in a tight four-wide battle with Chastain, Berry and Gragson, was sent for a spin through the infield backstretch after being bumped by Gragson amid an accordion effect that included Berry and Chastain. Despite getting stuck in the grass, a wrecker pushed Busch’s No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet entry out of the grass. This allowed the driver to drive back to pit road, but he lost a lap in the process. Amid Busch’s incident, Larson retained the lead over Logano, Bell, Bowman and Blaney.
Like the previous two restarts, the next restart with 55 laps remaining did not last long when Haley, who was racing in the top-20 mark and mired in a near five-wide battle, made contact with Corey Heim that resulted with Haley slipping back up the track and colliding into Erik Jones towards the backstretch’s outside wall. As the field scattered, Haley, who would reverse his damaged entry back to his pit stall following the incident, clipped Wallace sending the latter hitting the outside wall and terminating his daylong charge back to the lead lap amid his early pit road penalty. Austin Dillon was also involved, scrubbing against Jones in the process. By then, Larson barely fended off Logano to retain the lead while Bell made his way into the runner-up spot.
With the event restarting under green with 49 laps remaining, Larson, who restarted on the inside lane in front of teammate Bowman, boosted ahead of Bell and the field with the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns. As the field behind diced for late spots, Larson led the following lap over Bell and Bowman while Briscoe made a strong move to overtake both Preece and Logano for fourth place. Over the next three laps, Blaney battled teammate Logano for sixth place in front of Hocevar, Buescher and Reddick, the latter of whom nearly spun amid a check-up during the previous restart, while Larson retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Bell with 45 laps remaining.
Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Larson extended his lead to more than a second over Bell while Bowman, Briscoe and Preece trailed in the top five. Behind, Blaney, Hocevar, Buescher, Logano and Reddick occupied top-10 spots ahead of Nemechek, Zane Smith, Elliott, Berry and Chastain while Cindric, Gragson, Heim, Todd Gilliland and van Gisbergen were racing in the top 20, respectively.
Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over Bell while Bowman and Briscoe followed suit in third and fourth, respectively. Behind, Blaney overtook Preece for fifth place while Buescher, Hocevar, Logano and Berry trailed in the top 10 by double digits. Meanwhile, Reddick dropped to 11th as he was battling Nemechek to maintain the spot while Elliott was mired in 13th place in front of Zane Smith, Cindric and Heim.
Final Laps
With 10 laps remaining, Larson’s advantage grew to two seconds over Bell while Bowman, Blaney and Briscoe continued to race in the top five. Over the next five laps, Blaney, who was the fastest competitor on the track, overtook Bowman for third place as he trailed the lead by four seconds. By then, however, Larson maintained the lead by more than a second over Bell.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained in the lead by more than a second over Bell. Despite having his large advantage erased due to falling off the pace, starting from the backstretch, Larson was able to have enough power to nurse his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entry back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell.
With his third victory at Kansas, Larson, who surpassed 10,000 career laps led prior to his Kansas victory, notched his 32nd career win in NASCAR’s premier series, which tied him with NASCAR’s Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett on the all-time wins list. The Californian also achieved his 26th victory driving the No. 5 Chevrolet entry for Hendrick Motorsports and he joined Christopher Bell as three-time Cup race winners through the first half of the 2025 regular-season stretch.
Compared to a year ago where he edged Chris Buescher by a record 0.001 seconds to win in dramatic fashion, Larson expressed enthusiasm over winning the spring Kansas event by a reasonable margin and having enough power and tire wear to steer his entry back to the finish line first.
“I was trying really hard to pace myself because I believe that was our longest [green flag] run of the day,” Larson said on the frontstretch on FS1. “I’d been struggling a little bit at the end of the runs. Chase [Elliott] was really good, so I felt like I just needed to try to be better on my end. I don’t know if it was paying off or not at the end. He continued, saying, “I was still struggling. I don’t know if the right front [tire] was starting to wear a lot or what, but I was starting to lose a lot of grip and then, I was vibrating really bad. I was afraid a right rear or something would let go.
Great car, great execution today, too, for our team. Glad to not win by an inch right here this time [compared to last year] and [have] a little bit safer gap. It’s cool to win here at Kansas and now, we’ll try to execute two good weeks at Indy.”
Larson’s Cup victory at Kansas occurred as he is in the midst of a month-long racing marathon in May. He will next race in sprint cars at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway on Monday, May 12, before he travels to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, beginning this Tuesday, May 13, and spend the duration of this upcoming week and next weekend to both practice and attempt to qualify for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. The latter activities are part of his second Double Duty attempt by competing in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in this year’s Memorial Day weekend between Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports, respectively. Mired within Larson’s second Double Duty attempt is his bid to win a fourth All-Star Race feat next Sunday, May 18, at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Bell, who started in third place and cut Larson’s large advantage down to within seven-tenths of a second during the final lap, settled in second place for his sixth top-five result of the 2025 season and his best-ever result at Kansas.
“I was struggling just as bad as [Larson] was, so I was just trying to get to the end,” Bell said. “I know Ryan [Blaney] was coming on really strong there. Overall, to get home second with a lot of stage points was something that we needed after the last couple of weeks. This Reser’s Camry was just not quite what we needed.
“I feel like our day was kind of a product of qualifying well, having good pit stops, having good restarts and nothing really took us out of [the race]. Whenever the long green flag runs came, it seemed like we were going backwards and there were a couple of guys that could drive by us. To walk out of here second, I’m really happy with and hopefully, we can be a little bit stronger when we come back.”
Ryan Blaney posted his second consecutive third-place result in recent weeks while Chase Briscoe and Alex Bowman finished in the top five. Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano and John Hunter Nemechek completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, Corey Heim finished in 13th place in his first of select Cup start for 23XI Racing behind Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson. Chase Elliott, who led 29 laps, settled in 15th place after he never recovered from his late slow pit service.
In addition, Zane Smith ended up in 16th place in front of Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen emerged as the highest-finishing rookie competitor in 20th place, Kyle Busch settled in 21st place and a lap down following his late spin, William Byron capped off his long event in 24th place and Carson Hocevar, who hit the wall in the closing laps, dropped to 26th place.
There were 15 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 37 laps. In addition, 20 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 12th event of the 2025 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 35 points over teammate William Byron, 85 over Christopher Bell, 91 over teammate Chase Elliott and 107 over Ryan Blaney.
Results:
1. Kyle Larson, 221 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Christopher Bell, three laps led
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Alex Bowman, two laps led
6. Josh Berry
7. Ryan Preece
8. Chris Buescher
9. Joey Logano, one lap led
10. John Hunter Nemechek
11. Austin Cindric
12. Todd Gilliland
13. Corey Heim
14. Noah Gragson
15. Chase Elliott, 29 laps led
16. Zane Smith
17. Tyler Reddick
18. Ross Chastain
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20. Shane van Gisbergen
21. Kyle Busch, one lap down, one lap led
22. Austin Dillon, one lap down
23. Michael McDowell, one lap down
24. William Byron, one lap down
25. Cole Custer, two laps down
26. Carson Hocevar, two laps down, four laps led
27. Riley Herbst, two laps down
28. Ty Gibbs, three laps down
29. Jesse Love, three laps down
30. Cody Ware, six laps down
31. Justin Haley, 12 laps down
32. Erik Jones – OUT, DVP
33. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident
34. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
35. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident, four laps led
36. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Drivetrain, two laps led
37. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident
38. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 41st running of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 18, and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
