Kyle Larson delivered a haymaker Sunday at Kansas Speedway as he swept the stages, earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap bonus and won the race to become the first driver to earn the maximum 76 points under that points system. As a result, Larson increased his lead by one point to 26 over Denny Hamlin, and every other driver lost points to the leader this week.
Here’s where we are in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 exiting the Hollywood Casino 400 and heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Kansas Results | Full Cup Series Standings
Flush changer
Christopher Bell summed up the feeling that might settle over The Chase field after witnessing Larson’s dominant performance, saying he believed he needed to win three races to even have a chance at the championship. Considering there are only six races left in The Chase, that seems like a tall order, even for someone with the talent of Bell who reeled off three straight wins early last season, or for Hamlin, who competed in the same type of three-race heat earlier this year.
But to see why this winner-takes-all attitude is starting to take hold in Chase’s current field, one need look no further than the points shift that occurred after Larson passed Chase Briscoe with seven laps remaining in Sunday’s race. Before this pass, Larson was only eight points ahead of Hamlin in The Chase standings, while Bell and Joey Logano were 28 and 39 points behind, respectively. Ryan Blaney, at minus-73, and Ty Gibbs (minus-75) were the next two drivers in line.
A Briscoe victory would have made things much tighter entering Las Vegas, but when Larson passed the looser No. 19 Toyota and won the race, his cushion became much more comfortable (see Chase Board). Now it appears it will take a herculean effort to stop Larson from winning his third championship, and Bell, Hamlin and others all mentioned in their post-race interviews the importance of not only racking up plenty of stage points, but also coming away with the victory.
The hunting council
The driver closest to Larson in the standings, Hamlin, might still have something to say. The Chase didn’t get off to the start Hamlin might have wanted, but a third-place finish and a 51-point day at Kansas would have been great most weeks. But that week, that meant Hamlin lost 25 points to Larson’s 76-point outburst. Still, Hamlin’s top-five finish was his eighth in a row on a 1.5-mile track, and he also extended his record streak of leading laps to 29.
With two more 1.5-mile tracks remaining in this portion of The Chase, there is still time for Hamlin to regain his footing in the championship race. According to Racing Insights, Hamlin is still ranked No. 1 in speed in his season averages. He also comes in third in passing and fourth in defense, but he’s only eighth in restarts and pit crews.
A look at those season-long averages also shows how Briscoe, the driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, really let a big fish get away from him at Kansas. That’s because his numbers have been on par with top drivers, ranking first in restarts and defense, second in pit crew, fourth in passing, and seventh in speed.
At Kansas, Briscoe had a rough day by his standards: although he was first on the pit crew, with a record stop mixed in, he finished seventh in speed and passing, 10th in defense, and 17th in restarts. A poorly handling car in the final stages, perhaps caused by having to work so hard to find Larson, probably had a lot to do with the defense’s drop in numbers.
| Rank | Driver | Points behind | Gain/Loss for the leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Larson | — | I won 25 |
| 2 | Denis Hamlin | -26 | Lost 25 |
| 3 | Christopher Bell | -50 | Lost 33 |
| 4 | Joey Logano | -67 | Lost 51 |
| 5 | Ryan Blaney | -91 | Lost 39 |
| 6 | Ty Gibbs | -94 | Lost 52 |
| 7 | Tyler Reddick | -111 | Lost 50 |
| 8 | Chase Briscoe | -123 | Lost 36 |
| 9 | Austin Cindric | -140 | Lost 24 |
| 10 | Bubba Wallace | -140 | Lost 48 |
| 11 | Carson Hocevar | -150 | Lost 65 |
| 12 | William Byron | -158 | Lost 37 |
| 13 | Chase Elliott | -161 | Lost 44 |
| 14 | Ryan Preece | -173 | Lost 49 |
| 15 | Chris Buescher | -186 | Lost 62 |
| 16 | Daniel Suarez | -187 | Lost 53 |
Source: Racing Insights
Following
Las Vegas Motor Speedway provides an opportunity for those who have been strong at Kansas to continue their momentum as it is another 1.5 mile track. There’s also a good chance we’ll see practice and qualifying in a Chase where the metric set the lineup three times in the first four races due to weather conditions ruining qualifying.
Therefore, some drivers who were hurt by the metric at Kansas – like Briscoe, who started 23rd, and Blaney, who started 25th after the Carson Hocevar crash at Bristol – might not be buried at the back of the field in Las Vegas and have to work so hard to advance.
Looking back at the most recent winners in Las Vegas, Hamlin took home the last two checkered flags there. Before that, it was Josh Berry in the spring of 2025 and Joey Logano in the fall of 2024. Further back, it was Larson winning back-to-back races in Vegas in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024. Needless to say, these are some of the key names from The Chase who will likely be in the lead on Sunday.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Blaney, Bell and Briscoe have yet to win in Las Vegas during their Cup Series careers. Bell has five top-five finishes and led 279 laps there, and he finished second to Larson in the fall of 2023 and second to Logano in the fall of 2024. But like the man said earlier, that’s probably not good enough in this pursuit.
Gn headline
