Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar-Korrespondent
Kyle Larson left little doubt at the Hollywood Casino 400 in Kansas about who had the fastest car in the field, even though Chase Briscoe provided some late-race thrills.
Kyle Larson won the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday at Kansas Speedway’s 1.5-mile tri-oval while setting a new track record: he led 235 of 267 laps, more than any other driver has led in Kansas before. It was his second win of the 2026 season and his fourth career victory at the track, coming despite a multi-car incident in Stage 2 and an unexpected late charge from Chase Briscoe. With the win and stage bonuses, Larson extended his lead in the playoff standings significantly, now 26 points ahead of Denny Hamlin before heading to Las Vegas.
Dominance from Lap One
Joey Logano started from pole position, but the lead didn’t last a full lap. Larson, starting second, drove around the outside of Logano and took the lead before the field even fully processed the initial green flag. From there, he controlled the race almost at will.
After a scheduled competition caution at lap 35, Larson won Stage 1 convincingly ahead of Denny Hamlin and Austin Cindric. The second segment also went to him clearly, again over Cindric and Hamlin. By that point, the Hendrick driver had led nearly every single lap of the race, a pace that generated little resistance from the rest of the field.
Chaos on the Restart and the Payback Question
The first regular yellow flag of the day came at lap 113 when smoke started pouring from Noah Gragson’s Ford. The engine failure ended his afternoon early; Gragson had to park the car in the garage and became the only driver to fail to finish. Over the radio, he made his frustration clear: “Good car. Sh*tty result,” he told his team.
At the restart nine laps later, Carson Hocevar spun in the midfield and triggered a chain reaction. Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Erik Jones, and Zane Smith all got caught up in the chaos or were collected by the pileup. Notably close to Hocevar was Brad Keselowski, who had publicly warned the Spire driver two weeks earlier after a similar incident in Darlington: “His day is coming, and it’s coming hard,” Keselowski said at the time. Whether contact in Kansas was actually intentional couldn’t be definitively determined from the TV footage, but commentators and fans certainly raised the question. Wallace fought his way out of the chaos and recovered to ninth place.
Briscoe’s Bid for the Win and Larson’s Answer
Around 30 laps from the end, something happened that few thought possible: Chase Briscoe drove past Larson under the green flag and took the lead. For a moment, it looked like the Joe Gibbs driver might actually spoil the track record holder’s day.
Larson wasn’t rattled, stayed close, and made his decisive move with seven laps remaining. Briscoe held on for a while but lost control and touched the wall eleven laps from the end, dropping him from a podium position back to fourth. Larson safely brought home his advantage over the final laps and crossed the finish line 0.565 seconds ahead of a charging Austin Cindric, with Hamlin in third.
For Larson, the victory should send a clear message that he’s the one to beat in this playoff phase. With a 26-point lead over Hamlin, he heads to Las Vegas as the favorite, while Briscoe, despite missing out on the win, likely proved he’s a serious contender in the championship fight.
