Kansas City, KS – The fourth race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship took place today at Kansas Speedway. Joey Logano started on the pole after practice, and qualifying was canceled on Saturday morning due to weather. He was looking for his first victory since World Wide Technology Raceway a few weeks ago. However, other Chase drivers were looking to take the spotlight as well.
At the end of the 267-lap race, Kyle Larson would dominate the Hollywood Casino 400 by leading the most laps, sweeping the stages, and even rallying back to take the lead away from Chase Briscoe in the final 10 laps.
“I really thought when Chase (Briscoe) got by, he was just going to stretch out,” Larson said to USA Sports on the frontstretch. “I got some lines going where I could just kind of settle in and try to take care of my tires. I think it’s just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted. I think a lot of the same. 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 was starting to get really loose. 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 to get the lead, that’s a big race for the points. Proud of my team. Happy 50th anniversary to Hendrick Automotive group. All of us (Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers) are just blessed to get to work with such amazing people. Here’s to 50 more amazing years for Hendrick Automotive Group.”
Stages 80-85-102 would make up the 267-lap race.
Stage 1 – Lap 1 – Lap 80
Kyle Larson broke out ahead of pole sitter Logano and Bell to lead the first lap. Ty Gibbs started in the sixth position, but dropped to 11th in the opening laps. At Lap 13, Kansas Spring race winner Tyler Reddick fell all the way back to 33rd place. At Lap 20, Denny Hamlin was up to second, 5.8 seconds back from the race leader, Larson, while Austin Cindric was up to third, just 7.3 seconds from Larson.
There was a competition yellow at Lap 35 because there was no practice or qualifying yesterday due to the weather. Larson was the leader at the time of the yellow and had led every lap to that point unchallenged. At one point, he easily had over a seven-second lead.
The restart came at Lap 40 with Larson and Hamlin as the leaders. At Lap 43, Carson Hocevar was up to the third position. The first stage completed at Lap 80 with no incidents, and Larson wound up the stage winner over Hamlin by 0.374 seconds. The Top 10 for this stage were Larson, Hamlin, Cindric, Hocevar, Christopher Bell, Logano, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, and Ryan Blaney. The stage victory was Larson’s seventh of the season.
Larson won the race off pit road to retain the top spot. Alex Bowman had to drop to the rear prior to the Stage 2 restart due to an uncontrolled tire.
Stage 2 – Lap 86 – Lap 165
The Top 10 for the restart were Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Byron, Cindric, Elliott, Logano, Hocevar, Gibbs, and Chase Briscoe. Hamlin briefly challenged Larson for the race lead, but Larson managed the lead position. At Lap 100 (65 laps to go in the stage), Larson had a 2.5-second lead over Hamlin. Five laps later at Lap 105, Cindric moved into the second position and was 4.4 seconds back from Larson.
The third caution and first for incident came out at Lap 113 for the No. 4 of Noah Gragson, as the engine expired going into Turns 1 and 2. The leaders came down pit road for a round of pit stops, but Larson still won the race off pit road regardless.
The restart came at Lap 121 (44 laps to go in the stage) with Larson and Hamlin in the front row, but an immediate caution came out for a multi-car collision going into Turn 1. Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, Josh Berry, Zane Smith, Gibbs, and Erik Jones were involved. According to replay, Brad Keselowski got into the rear bumper of Hocevar, which caused Hocevar to move up into a different lane and thus causing a collision. Hocevar reported on his radio that he could have a toe link and a right-front flat tire.
The following restart would be seen at Lap 127 (38 laps to go in the stage) with Larson and Hamlin still the leaders.
Larson ended up sweeping the stages by winning the second stage. The Hendrick Motorsports driver won the stage over Cindric by 1.392 seconds. For the Top 10, it was Larson, Cindric, Hamlin, Briscoe, Bell, Byron, Blaney, Logano, Gibbs, and Keselowski.
Stage 3 – Lap 171 – Lap 267
The third and final stage went back to green with 96 laps to go, with Larson maintaining the top position over Briscoe. Throughout the final stage, Larson had the lead and was not challenged before the final 60 laps. Briscoe began rallying and started inching closer and closer in an attempt to challenge Larson for the lead. At one point, Briscoe was side-by-side with him and tried two times to take the top spot. With 51 laps to go, Larson and Briscoe both pitted. Larson came out in front of him as they exited pit road. This would begin the final round of pit stops with other Chase drivers following suit.
Unfortunately, there was a long pit stop on Reddick’s machine during this cycle, which caused him to lose valuable seconds in the race.
Briscoe began closing back in on the race leader, Larson, with 33 laps to go. Briscoe finally took the lead from Larson with 30 laps to go off Turn 2. With 20 laps to go, Larson started to close back in on the race leader, Briscoe, but Briscoe would keep Larson at bay.
However, Larson challenged Briscoe for the lead with 10 laps to go, as both made brief contact with the Turn 2 wall. With seven laps to go, Larson took the lead from Briscoe off Turn 4. Briscoe then made slight contact with the wall again on the backstretch after being passed.
Larson would hang on to win despite multiple challenges from Briscoe to win his second race of the season and his first since World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. It was also Larson’s fourth win at Kansas since April 2025. Furthermore, he led six times for 235 laps en route to victory. This win was also his second Chase for the Championship win as well.
There were five cautions for 26 laps and seven leaders among 13 lead changes. The margin of victory was 0.565 seconds.
Official Race Results Following the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway
- Kyle Larson, won both stages, led 235 laps
- Austin Cindric, led one lap
- Denny Hamlin, led two laps
- Chase Briscoe, led 23 laps
- Ryan Blaney, led four laps
- Christopher Bell
- William Byron
- Chase Elliott
- Bubba Wallace
- Ryan Preece
- Tyler Reddick
- Brad Keselowski
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Daniel Suarez
- Ross Chastain, led one lap
- Erik Jones
- Ty Gibbs
- Alex Bowman
- Todd Gilliland
- Joey Logano
- Austin Dillon, 1 Lap Down
- AJ Allmendinger, 1 Lap Down
- Chris Buescher, 1 Lap Down
- Shane Van Gisbergen, 1 Lap Down
- Riley Herbst, 1 Lap Down
- Austin Hill, 1 Lap Down
- Michael McDowell, 1 Lap Down
- Ty Dillon, 1 Lap Down
- Connor Zilisch, led one lap, 1 Lap Down
- Cole Custer, 1 Lap Down
- Zane Smith, 1 Lap Down
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 1 Lap Down
- Carson Hocevar, 3 Laps Down
- Cody Ware, 5 Laps Down
- Josh Berry, 10 Laps Down
- Noah Gragson, OUT, Engine
Updated Chase for the Championship Standings
- Kyle Larson, 2,282 points
- Denny Hamlin, -26
- Christopher Bell, -50
- Joey Logano, -67
- Ryan Blaney, -91
- Ty Gibbs, -94
- Tyler Reddick, -111
- Chase Briscoe, -123
- Austin Cindric, -140
- Bubba Wallace, -140
- Carson Hocevar, -150
- William Byron, -158
- Chase Elliott, -161
- Ryan Preece, -173
- Chris Buescher, -186
- Daniel Suarez, -187
Up Next – The next NASCAR Cup Series race is next Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the South Point 400, live at 5:30 p.m./ET on USA Network and the NASCAR Racing Network.
