KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It could be argued that with Kyle Larson’s three victories (tied for second among all drivers) and crossing the millennium mark in laps led throughout his career at Kansas Speedway (most in track history), that he is the alpha dog at Kansas.
Larson expects to run at the front of the field at the high-banked, 1.5-mile intermediate. And that’s exactly what he did in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400.
“It’s cool to be the all-time lap leader here; that’s pretty awesome, especially for as long as this track has been going and guys that are still racing have been going for a long time,” Larson said of becoming the new laps-led leader at Kansas after leading 78 circuits. “Proud of that, proud of the day and the [No.] 5 team, keep inching at it.”
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Larson was a mainstay inside the top five for the duration of 400 miles, finishing runner-up to Hamlin in Stage 1. He took the lead during the second stage, winning his third stage of season, tying Hamlin for the series high.
The No. 5 car dropped two positions on pit road at the stage break and lost two more during the opening laps of the run. With the laps clicking away, he was in line to finish third, more than 10 seconds behind the battle with Hamlin and Tyler Reddick.
But when Cody Ware spun to bring out the race’s only natural caution with two laps remaining in regulation, Larson was among the biggest beneficiaries. Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 car, elected to take right-side tires, as did the entire top 10. Larson exited pit road in third, choosing the inside line of the second row for the overtime finish.
When the green flag waved, Larson dropped to the apron, getting underneath Hamlin. He was able to clear both the No. 11 car and Reddick to be the leader at the white-flag lap by more than a quarter of a second. The No. 45 Toyota dove deep into Turn 1 to get next to Larson and was able to clear the No. 5 car for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Larson was 0.118 seconds from capturing the checkered flag, as his winless drought extended to 33 races.
“The restart worked out perfect for me,” Larson said of the overtime sprint. “Denny was stretching away and [Brad Keselowski] gave me a tap and let me rebuild my momentum and was able to do a later move getting to the inside of Denny into 1. [Reddick] had to protect his outside, so it made him go the long distance. I got clear of the lead and was happy — really happy.
“But then I went down into [Turn] 3 and I couldn’t carry the throttle and speed; I was super tight and didn’t get through there like I needed to. Tyler had a big run behind me and knew I was going to be in trouble either lane I went.”
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The runner-up finish for Larson is his second consecutive podium effort in 2026. It’s his fourth second-place result since his most recent triumph.
“It was a solid day,” Larson added. “About normal for us at Kansas. We always run inside the top five here, lead lots of laps, get stage wins and stuff like that and have gotten a lot of race wins. It was a normal day and I would say these tracks, we’re fine at. It’s the short tracks that we are really far off right now, so we will keep working at that.”