It’s All Larson In Kansas Cup Series Romp

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Last year, Kyle Larson won the spring race at Kansas Speedway by the thinnest of margins — 0.001 seconds in the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.

On Sunday, after putting his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole on Saturday, Larson defended his victory in far more decisive fashion, leading 221 of 267 laps in winning the AdventHealth 400 at the 1.5-mile track.

The triumph was Larson’s third of the season, tying race runner-up Christopher Bell for most in the series so far this year. The win was Larson’s third at Kansas and the 32nd of his career, tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett for 29th on the career list.

“Great car, great execution today, too, for our team,” said Larson, who now will start to concentrate on the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double he’ll attempt for the second time later this month.

“Glad to not win by an inch right here this time and a little bit safer gap. But thanks again to the team. Congrats to all of Hendrick Motorsports, the engine shop, everybody there.”

Larson reached several significant milestones on Sunday. His career laps led reached 10,073, behind only Kyle Busch (19,440) and Denny Hamlin (15,613) among full-time active drivers.

Sweeping the first and second stages, Larson now has eight stage wins this season, a record for the first 12 Cup races of a season. His stage sweep was the 14th of his career.

Larson now leads the series standings by 35 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who finished 24th after falling off the lead lap with an early flat tire.

The colossal numbers, however, don’t tell the full story. At the end of the final 49-lap green-flag run, Larson had to manage his right-side tires, and his advantage over Bell shrank from a comfortable two seconds to just 0.712 seconds at the finish line.

Closing fast in third, Ryan Blaney finished just 0.832 seconds behind the race winner.

“I was trying really hard to pace myself, because I believe that was our longest run of the day,” Larson said. “I’d been struggling a little bit at the end of the runs.

“I don’t know if it was paying off or not at the end. I was still struggling. I don’t know if the right front 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, so I was afraid a right rear or something would let go.”

As close as Bell got at the finish, it wasn’t a particularly satisfying runner-up finish for the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

“I didn’t feel like we were very good today,” Bell said. “We qualified well, had good pit stops, never really had any issues to set us back. But on the track, we were constantly going the wrong direction instead of going forward.

“But everyone fought hard on this Reser’s Camry and got us a good finish. I don’t know. I’m sure I will be a lot happier about it tomorrow and later in the week, but just didn’t feel like we were very good, and we were still right there, so I think that’s a testament to how good this team is.”

Helping Larson’s cause was the sequence of events at the start of the race’s final stage, which also was emblematic of hapless Brad Keselowski’s entire season

A quick pit stop got Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford out in fourth place behind Chase Elliott, Larson and Blaney for a restart. As Elliott widened his lead, Keselowski took third and battled Larson side-by-side for second, with Keselowski prevailing on Lap 179.

Chasing Elliott with the prospect of a season-altering victory in sight, Keselowski narrowed Elliott’s lead from nearly two seconds to 0.913 seconds, but on Lap 195, Keselowski blew a right-front tire entering Turn 1 and slapped the outside wall.

“I hit pretty hard, so I doubt it’s fixable, but we’ll see,” Keselowski radioed to his team.

He was right. The No. 6 Ford left the track on a wrecker, out of the race in 37th place. The 2012 Cup champion has yet to score a top 10 or lead a lap this season.

Nevertheless, Keselowski’s accident was a boon for Larson, who regained control of the race thereafter. Elliott had usurped the top spot out of the pits on Lap 169 and gapped the rest of the field after a Lap 174 restart.

During pit stops under the fourth caution for Keselowski’s wreck, however, Elliott’s crew had trouble with the right rear tire, and Elliott lost 11 positions for the subsequent restart on Lap 201. He never recovered and faded to 15th at the finish.

Chase Briscoe ran fourth for the fourth time this season. Alex Bowman scraped the wall in the closing laps and held fifth ahead of Ford drivers Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher and Joey Logano.

John Hunter Nemechek came home 10th, scoring his second straight top 10 on an intermediate track.

The race featured seven cautions—four in the final stage—for a total of 37 laps. Elliott led 29 laps, the only driver other than Larson to lead more than four.