By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson made a statement in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Retaking the lead from Chase Briscoe with seven laps left, Larson won for the second time in three races and took control of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1.

Larson’s fourth victory at the 1.5-mile track left him 26 points ahead of second-place Denny Hamlin, who entered the Chase as the top seed. Christopher Bell is 50 points back in third after finishing sixth on Sunday.

“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, who lost the lead to Briscoe on Lap 238 of 267. “I don’t know. I think it’s just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.

“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 to get the lead, that’s a big deal for the points.”

The victory was Larson’s second of the season and 34th of his career, tying him with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for 26th all-time.

Though Larson, the defending series champion, won the first two stages, led 235 laps, and set the fastest lap (30.076 seconds on Lap 2) to score a maximum 76 points for the day, the win was hardly a foregone conclusion after the final cycle of green-flag pit stops.

After following Briscoe to pit road on Lap 216 with a last-second call, Larson regained the top spot at the end of the pit cycle, but he scraped the wall early in the final run. Briscoe ran Larson down from 1.5 seconds back and passed the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the lead on Lap 238.

Briscoe held the top spot for 23 laps, but his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota developed a loose condition late in the run, and Larson made up the ground he had lost. On Lap 261, Larson darted to the inside of Briscoe’s Camry and completed the winning pass.

Contact with the wall cost Briscoe in the final laps, as both runner-up Austin Cindric and third-place Hamlin passed him on the way to the checkered flag. Briscoe held fourth, followed by Ryan Blaney, who is now fifth in the standings, 91 points behind Larson.

“Yeah, just went really, really loose,” Briscoe said of the closing laps. “I kind of had that the run before when we did the green-flag pit stop. I got it in the wall so many times that I had a little bit of a leak. Just went really, really free ultimately.

“It was better for me to be in second. Just being behind (Larson), especially with how much he was aero blocking, it would just tighten me up and allow me to actually be a little bit better. And then as soon as I would get the lead, I would just go really, really free again.

“So, yeah, frustrating for sure. Yeah, just felt like I had a win there to stay in contention for a championship, and obviously now losing, I don’t know, 123 points back (in eighth place), that’s probably not going to happen.”

With perhaps the fastest long-run car in the race, Cindric closed to 0.565 seconds behind Larson at the finish.

Cindric, however, lost time on the track by pitting one lap later than Larson and Briscoe. He was 4.6 seconds down to the leader when pit stops cycled out and spent the rest of the race trying to close the gap.

“I just feel like that cycle could have gone better for us,” Cindric said. “I feel like just the way it all played out with three cars coming in front, and I slipped through the box a little bit, having some stuff on my tires. I could have done a better job there.

“When you only lose by half a second, I wish I would have had at least a shot at it. I felt like we could have at least joined the fun at least. But, no, proud of the effort and great points for today.”

Cindric scored 52 points to Larson’s 76 and is tied with Bubba Wallace for ninth in the Chase standings, 140 points behind Larson.

Behind Bell, William Byron ran seventh, followed by Chase Elliott, Wallace and Ryan Preece. Tyler Reddick made a remarkable recovery after running 33rd in his ill-handling Toyota early in the race and finished 11th. Reddick’s rally could have been even better, but for a blown pit stop under green in the final cycle.

Joey Logano, who started from the pole by the rule book when rain washed out time trials, finished 20th and fell from third to fourth in the standings, a distant 67 points out of the lead.

Ten of the 16 Chase drivers are now 111 points or more behind Larson, with 14th-place finisher Daniel Suarez 187 points down in 16th place.

After finishing fourth in Stage 1, Bristol pugilist Carson Hocevar was part of a six-car restart wreck on Lap 122. With severe damage to the splitter on his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Hocevar finished 33rd and dropped three spots to 11th in the standings, 150 points in arrears.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Hollywood Casino 400

Kansas Speedway

Kansas City, Kansas

Sunday, September 27, 2026

            1. (2)  Kyle Larson (C), Chevrolet, 267.

            2. (11)  Austin Cindric (C), Ford, 267.

            3. (6)  Denny Hamlin (C), Toyota, 267.

            4. (23)  Chase Briscoe (C), Toyota, 267.

            5. (25)  Ryan Blaney (C), Ford, 267.

            6. (3)  Christopher Bell (C), Toyota, 267.

            7. (8)  William Byron (C), Chevrolet, 267.

            8. (18)  Chase Elliott (C), Chevrolet, 267.

            9. (7)  Bubba Wallace (C), Toyota, 267.

            10. (9)  Ryan Preece (C), Ford, 267.

            11. (15)  Tyler Reddick (C), Toyota, 267.

            12. (16)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.

            13. (26)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 267.

            14. (14)  Daniel Suarez (C), Chevrolet, 267.

            15. (13)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 267.

            16. (30)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.

            17. (5)  Ty Gibbs (C), Toyota, 267.

            18. (33)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 267.

            19. (20)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 267.

            20. (1)  Joey Logano (C), Ford, 267.

            21. (19)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 266.

            22. (24)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 266.

            23. (12)  Chris Buescher (C), Ford, 266.

            24. (17)  Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 266.

            25. (34)  Riley Herbst, Toyota, 266.

            26. (32)  Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 266.

            27. (22)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 266.

            28. (36)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 266.

            29. (27)  Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 266.

            30. (29)  Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 266.

            31. (28)  Zane Smith, Ford, 266.

            32. (31)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 266.

            33. (4)  Carson Hocevar (C), Chevrolet, 264.

            34. (35)  Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 262.

            35. (10)  Josh Berry, Ford, 257.

            36. (21)  Noah Gragson, Ford, Engine, 112.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 139.156 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 52 Mins, 41 Secs. Margin of Victory: .565 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 26 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: J. Logano (C) 0;K. Larson (C) 1-36;R. Chastain 37;K. Larson (C) 38-39;D. Hamlin (C) 40;K. Larson (C) 41-168;C. Zilisch # 169;K. Larson (C) 170-215;A. Cindric (C) 216;D. Hamlin (C) 217;R. Blaney (C) 218-221;K. Larson (C) 222-237;C. Briscoe (C) 238-260;K. Larson (C) 261-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson (C) 6 times for 235 laps; Chase Briscoe (C) 1 time for 23 laps; Ryan Blaney (C) 1 time for 4 laps; Denny Hamlin (C) 2 times for 2 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 1 lap; Austin Cindric (C) 1 time for 1 lap; Connor Zilisch # 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,11,2,77,20,22,24,9,54,12

Stage #2 Top Ten: 5,2,11,19,20,24,12,22,54,6

NASCAR Cup Series
Kansas Speedway
Hollywood Casino 400
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
September 27, 2026

Larson Dominates at Kansas Speedway to Earn Second Victory of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Season
 
Kyle Larson wrapped up a dominate afternoon at Kansas Speedway with a trip to victory lane in the Hollywood Casino 400. The win – Larson’s second of the season and his fourth in NASCAR’s top division at Kansas Speedway – came alongside a perfect day as the reigning champion drove to a stage sweep, clocked-in the fastest lap of the race, recorded 235 of 267 laps led, and tallied the victory to earn a 76-point day. With four races complete, Larson has extended the points lead to 26 points over Denny Hamlin.

A trio of Hendrick Motorsports-powered Chevrolet’s completed the Team Chevy top-10 at the Midwest-based oval. William Byron and the No. 24 team joined Larson with a pair of points-earning stages, going on to earn a seventh-place result. Chase Elliott drove his No. 9 Chevrolet to the team’s 10th top-10 finish of the season as he ended the day with an eighth-place finish.

RACE RECAP:

Stage One:

With yet another practice and qualifying day for the NASCAR Cup Series canceled due to weather, Kyle Larson’s second-place effort last weekend put the reigning champion on the front row of the starting lineup for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Lining up on the outside lane, a masterful start saw the No. 5 Chevrolet take the lead on the opening lap and quickly extend his margin to just over three-seconds in only 10 laps around the 1.5-mile circuit. Also showing early speed within that distance was his teammate, William Byron, who turned an eighth-place starting position into a spot within the top-four. With a competition caution slated around the 35-lap marker, Larson continued to set an impressive pace even as he reached lap traffic – ending the green flag run with a 2.8-second cushion over second. While the field hit pit road under the competition caution, it was a four tire call by crew chief Cliff Daniels as the No. 5 pit crew kept their driver in the top position for the restart. Electing the inside lane, it was a drag race with Denny Hamlin for the top position as the pair ran side-by-side for the entirety of the opening lap of the run, but it was the Team Chevy driver that narrowly edged the No. 11 at the line by just .01-seconds to maintain the lead. While Hamlin was able to keep Larson within reach for the beginning portion of the run, the reigning champion progressively started to build his lead as the race reached 20 laps to go in the stage. Despite the added challenge of lap traffic in the closing laps, Larson was able to capitalize on his lead to comfortably take the first green-white checkered flag. Also driving to a points-earning effort in Stage One included three fellow Team Chevy Chase contenders with Carson Hocevar in fourth and teammates, Byron and Chase Elliott, in the seventh and eighth positions, respectively.

Stage Two:

With a call for four tires and fuel under the stage break, the No. 5 pit crew fired off a stop to keep Larson in the top position once again for the start of Stage Two. While Hamlin briefly challenged Larson for the lead on the restart, it was the Team Chevy driver that effortlessly maintained the lead and quickly started to build a gap on the No. 11 within the opening laps. While Larson remained a steady fixture in the command position, Hocevar began to endure a challenging stage when a slow stop under a caution near the midway point saw the driver fall to the 12th position for the restart. But calamity coming to the green flag saw a handful of cars, including Hocevar, go spinning down the frontstretch. Coming to the attention of crew chief Luke Lambert, the No. 77 team went to work on damaged sustained to the right-front splitter. Despite spending a lengthy amount of time on pit road for repairs, the team was able to keep Hocevar on the lead lap for the restart. With a caution-free run to the end of the stage, it was Larson that continued to pace the field en route to a stage sweep.

Final Stage:

The No. 5 pit crew continued to be undefeated in the race off pit road with a quick four tire and fuel stop under the stage break putting Larson back on the front row for the start of the final stage. This time, Larson was accompanied by Toyota’s Chase Briscoe for the restart, but the speed of his Chevrolet-powered machine put him back at the point for the final run of the race. Just past the 200-lap marker and approaching another long green flag run, Briscoe was the first true challenger of the day for Larson as he reached the back bumper of the No. 5 as the pair maneuvered through lap traffic. Approaching the window for the first green flag pit cycle of the day, Daniels called Larson to pit road with 52 laps to go with Briscoe in tow. An 8.7-second stop by the No. 5 pit crew and a strong exit off pit road by Larson saw the team build a solid one-second gap back towards Briscoe as they cycled back to the front of the field and on the horizon of the longest run of the race. Having led all but three laps of the day as the race hit 30 laps to go, a tight battle between the two saw Larson fall to second, but as the race hit single-digits, his speed prevailed as a masterful pass saw Larson regain the lead and never look back en route to his second trip to victory lane of the season.

 
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results

Pos. Driver

1st – Kyle Larson
7th – William Byron
8th – Chase Elliott

Chevrolet’s season statistics with 30 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 8
Poles: 6
Top-Fives: 51
Top 10s: 101
Stage Wins: 21

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase will continue at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the South Point 400 on Sunday, October 4, at 5:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:

Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 21st

“Proud of everyone on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Magnum Pheasant Chevrolet team today at Kansas Speedway for fighting until the last lap. We didn’t have practice and qualifying yesterday, so we knew we were going to learn a bit about the car’s balance in the initial laps. We started off a touch loose, but overall good, and then made an adjustment that made me way too tight. The team went back to the drawing board and were able to reverse that and get it to where the car’s balance was pretty good, we were making top-10 lap times and I was driving forward. We’ll make some notes for 2027 and turn our focus to Las Vegas next week.”

Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 1st

Just kind of describe what it’s like to have such a dominant performance at a racetrack that’s been so good to you.

“Yeah, it was great. 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 (Chase 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.”

Throughout the course of the day, you expressed a little concern about your car once you come off the top. You worried about lap traffic. What did you finally have to do? Did you figure it out, or was it just a matter of making it work best possible?

“Yeah, I think it’s just kind of a matter of making it work. I did have to change my line up there a lot. Once (Chase) Briscoe got by me, maybe that helped me just discover something that helped me a little bit. I was just not very good when I would catch traffic, but out in clean air, we were amazing.

Huge thank you to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. Congratulations to everybody at the Hendrick Automotive Group too, celebrating their 50th anniversary. We’ve gotten a couple special wins here for Mr. H, and I’m glad to do this one for all the 10,000 plus employees at Hendrick.”

What is that like to have that crew pit on the car and to be able to drive off pit road first?

“Yeah, it takes a team, and our pit crew has been on it all year. They have been ranked towards the top all season. It was a great day on pit road and hopefully they’re leading again. Huge thank you to them. And again, thanks to Cliff Daniels (crew chief), everybody on this No. 5 team for not having any practice and having the balance as good as it was.”

Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 8th

“It was an improvement from last week, for sure. Our No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet was pretty good. We had a couple runs there in the middle stages where it got a little tight. I just made a couple bad decisions on restarts, and everything we had gained, I felt like I lost it all right there. We finally started to get our balance back and going the right direction. I think I had given up a bit too much at that point of time.

Overall, it was definitely an improved day from where we’ve been. We just have to try and build on that. Hopefully we can just put some of these solid days together and try to continue to build on the good stuff from the day. There were some high spots for us, more than there has been lately, so we’ll see where it goes.”

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 7th

“I thought the speed of our No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet was hard to judge. We were just tight all day, and we couldn’t really get it to rotate on the restarts. I felt like our pit crew was doing a really good job of getting track position on pit road. On every restart, we just couldn’t fire off and couldn’t go with speed. We just fought that throughout the day. I thought our long runs were reasonable, but we still fought some balance issues. We just didn’t have the balance we wanted, but I thought our Chevy was pretty good.”

Is there anything you and Rudy Fugle (crew chief) can work on for the next two intermediate tracks?

“Yeah, we’ll definitely keep working on it. Obviously, we have a good baseline at Hendrick Motorsports now. Congrats to Kyle (Larson, race winner) and the No. 5 team. We just have to keep working.”

Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 26th

“Our Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet had speed on the long run, but we struggled on fire off. For the first 15-20 laps, our car was really tight and it would take too long to come in. At the same time, we were at the limit of the rears at the end of a run. If we could have found a way to not lose so much ground at the beginning, I think we could have had a solid finish because most runs, we would drive back forward at the end. We’ll learn from today and try to come back better next season.”

Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 27th

“A messy day here in Kansas, we had a few things not go our way and we fell behind pretty quick. From there, the balance wasn’t where we needed to be to make up the ground we had lost. It’s tough, our Delaware Life Chevrolet showed signs of solid speed early in the day. Once we got pushed back to the back half of the field, it felt like we couldn’t recover from there. I have faith in our group, we have a few more 1.5-mile tracks coming up, so it’s going to be important to maximize those going forward and build into next season.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.

CHASE BRISOCE LEADS LATE AT KANSAS; TOYOTA PLACES THREE CARS IN THE TOP SIX
Hamlin and Briscoe Bring Home Top Five Finishes as the Championship Battle Heats Up

KANSAS CITY (September 27, 2026) – Denny Hamlin passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway to lead Team Toyota with a third-place finish.

Briscoe took the lead with 29 laps to go, but eventual race winner Kyle Larson reclaimed the top spot 23 laps later, and Briscoe crossed the finish line fourth. Including Hamlin and Briscoe, four Toyota drivers finished inside the top 10 Sunday, with Christopher Bell sixth and Bubba Wallace ninth.

Hamlin and Bell continue to battle Larson for the championship points lead. Hamlin trails Larson by 26 points in second, and Bell is 50 points behind the leader in third with six races remaining in the Chase.

TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Kansas Speedway
Race 30 of 36 – 400.5 miles, 267 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Austin Cindric*
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, CHASE BRISCOE
6th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
9th, BUBBA WALLACE
11th, TYLER REDDICK
13th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
16th, ERIK JONES
17th, TY GIBBS
25th, RILEY HERBST
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

It was a great day, but what kept it from being exceptional?

“Winning. That’s the only difference. Just didn’t quite have it today. Just was hanging around. We could be really good in the long run, but the short run, you know, the 5 (Kyle Larson) was really good, 2 (Austin Cindric) was good. We just couldn’t quite hold those guys off or keep them close enough in the short run. Obviously at the end we ran a lot down, but just not enough time and track position. Obviously gained a few spots there at the end. Overall, just that’s kind of what we had. Third-place car, driver, and everything today.”

You’re still second, but now 26 points back. Does this feel like the first real threat to you being able to win a title?

“I mean, there’s always been a threat. I haven’t won it before, so I just feel like we’re still in it, still really close. You know, we just got to continue to put together days like this, and we also got to win. We got to win a few races between now and the end of the year.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

What happened the back end of the final run of the race?

“Just went really, really loose. I kind of had that the run before when we did the green flag pit stop. I got it in the wall so many times that I had a little bit of a leak. Just went really, really free ultimately. It was better for me to be in second. Just being behind him, especially with how much the aero blocking, it would just tighten me up and allow me to actually be a little bit better. And then as soon as I would get the lead, I would just go really, really free again. So, yeah, frustrating for sure. Yeah, just felt like I had a win there to stay in contention for a championship, and obviously now losing, I don’t know, 123 points back, that’s probably not going to happen We’ll keep trying for Bass Pro Shops, Tracker, Toyota. It’s nice to have a good finish in this Chase. It’s been a rough go to start. I have six more weeks to go try to win as many races as we can, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

How do you not mentally defeat yourself before you even hit the racetrack?

“I thought today, I think I was 87 out going into it, and I felt like I had to at least knock off 10 from the cut line. I didn’t get points the first stage, which I knew that was going to be hard. Ultimately, I had to win to be able to even stay somewhat around 80 or 90 back. I don’t know, it’s still possible, but you’re going to have to win five or so of the next six races. A little Tony Stewart 2011 run or something. We’ll see what we can do and yeah, go on to the next one.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Magnum Pheasant Chevrolet Team Stay Persistent to Earn 21st-Place Finish at Kansas Speedway

Finish: 21st
Start: 19th
Points: 24th

“Proud of everyone on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Magnum Pheasant Chevrolet team today at Kansas Speedway for fighting until the last lap. We didn’t have practice and qualifying yesterday, so we knew we were going to learn a bit about the car’s balance in the initial laps. We started off a touch loose, but overall good, and then made an adjustment that made our Chevy way too tight. The team went back to the drawing board and were able to reverse that and get it to where the car’s balance was pretty good. We were making top-10 lap times and I was driving forward. We’ll make some notes for 2027 and turn our focus to Las Vegas next week.” -Austin Dillon

Austin Hill and the No. 33 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet Team Show Long Run Speed at Kansas Speedway

Finish: 26th
Start: 32nd
Points: 31st

“Our Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet had speed on the long run, but we struggled on fire off. For the first 15-20 laps, our car was really tight and it would take too long to come in. At the same time, we were at the limit of the rears at the end of a run. If we could have found a way to not lose so much ground at the beginning, I think we could have had a solid finish because most runs, we would drive back forward at the end. We’ll learn from today and try to come back better next season.” -Austin Hill