The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rolls into North Wilkesboro Speedway this weekend for Saturday short-track racing (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series All-Star Race | Cup Series All-Star Open | Truck Series
Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is scheduled to run the No. 07 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, while Xfinity Series regular Sammy Smith pilots the No. 7 entry this weekend.
See the full entry list for the Window World 250:
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — No one has ever dominated Kansas Speedway the way Kyle Larson did Sunday afternoon.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet paced the field for 221 of 267 laps — a whopping 82.7% of the event. Those are the most laps any one driver has ever led in a race at Kansas, a track that began hosting Cup in 2001 — 24 years ago. He also scored the first “perfect” race of 2025 — a Stage 1 win, a Stage 2 win, the race win and a bonus point for posting the Xfinity Fastest Lap of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 — to leave the Sunflower State blooming with 61 points earned, seven playoff points added to his tally and an extended NASCAR Cup Series points lead.
RELATED: Race results | Cup standings
The accomplishments keep coming from Larson, along with the adornment of “Greatest of All-Time” from fans and competitors alike who can’t help but admire what he’s doing behind the wheel. So it’s that much more fitting that this win comes during the month of May, just two weeks before Larson will attempt the Memorial Day Weekend Double of the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day for the second straight season.
There is a sense of deja vu that comes with this victory. Larson sparked his 2024 Double campaign with a Kansas win too on the front side of May, with the California native going on to qualify sixth for his inaugural Indy 500 attempt. But on Memorial Weekend Sunday, Mother Nature offered the biggest buzzkill imaginable, both delaying the Indy 500 and shortening the Coke 600 to prevent him from ever getting into the Cup car that day. Making matters worse, a late speeding penalty at Indy dropped Larson from a likely top-10 finish down to 18th at the checkered flag.
So, as practice for the Indy 500 begins Tuesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, perhaps Sunday’s win at Kansas — his third of 2025 and second in four weeks — can be the start of a new, less frustrating journey toward accomplishing his long-targeted goal of completing 1,100 racing miles in one day in 2025. It is, at least, a step in the right direction.
“Obviously, confidence is something that’s important in everybody’s life, and right now he’s got a lot of it,” said Chad Knaus, a seven-time Cup champion as a former crew chief and currently Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of competition.
Larson has driven and will drive any type of race car you could imagine: stock car, open-wheel car, sprint car, go-kart. If it’s got wheels, Larson’s racing it — and more often than not, he’s competing to win in it. Last week was no exception. On Friday night, Larson was piloting a dirt sprint car at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas and was involved in a frightening crash. By Saturday morning, he was back in his Cup car like it never happened, rocketing to the pole for Sunday’s race. And after Sunday’s domination, he was on a plane to Indianapolis prepping to get behind the wheel of a sprint car on Monday at Kokomo Speedway.
MORE: Kansas photos
What crew chief Cliff Daniels sees on Sundays is the combination of Larson’s otherworldly talent paired with constant seat time, propelling the entire No. 5 team forward. But it’s also catapulted by Larson’s innate ability not to dwell on the highs or lows of his various endeavors.
“For him, as many times as he races — and he’s talked about this before — he just doesn’t carry stuff over,” Daniels said. “He had a heck of a spill the other night in the High Limit (sprint car) race and walks right into the NASCAR race ready to go. He doesn’t carry one race to the next. Obviously, momentum can be a real thing and is always a good thing. But for him, he’s racing all the time, so I think he’s just ready to go.”
Indeed, Larson attributes his “short memory” to the frequency with which he races. With another event on the docket, there’s no time to get caught up in the minutia.
“I do think it’s because I race a lot, I’m guessing,” Larson said. “I would say that that’s a big part of me being able to move on quickly from things, whether it’s a good race or a bad race, a wreck or good result, bad result, mistakes on track. Obviously, though, if (a poor result) happens multiple times in a row, it can kind of linger a little bit longer, but more so just hurt your confidence a little bit. But, yeah, I don’t know. I think I just race a lot.”
For now, the streak he’s on has been nearly entirely positive. To score three Cup wins in 12 races marks the quickest ascent to the hat trick of Larson’s decade-long career. He leads the series standings by 35 points over Hendrick teammate William Byron and has previously won at each of the next four stops on the NASCAR calendar: North Wilkesboro Speedway (host of this weekend’s exhibition All-Star Race), Charlotte Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway. To score his third Kansas triumph with opportunities for more success ahead should come as a warning shot to the rest of the Cup Series field.
“It’s certainly going to help carry our momentum,” Daniels said. “A lot of the things that we’re going to take away from today that I think will be important for us moving forward — if you look at the end of Stage 1 and Stage 2, we were not as fast as we wanted to be. And so I still think that there’s things on the table as a team that we need to go find and go build from and execute a little bit better with adjustments or car balance, whatever it may be. It’s going to be those type of things coupled with, of course, the win and momentum, which is always a good thing.
“But when you can run up front and still walk away and have areas to improve, that is what we enjoy. That’s what we’re going to take away.”
Denny Hamlin’s 36th-place finish in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway was significant for the 44-year-old Virginia native, and not in the best of ways.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who finished third-to-last in the 12th points-paying race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, suffered his second consecutive DNF, with Kansas a week removed from a last-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. With the result, Hamlin was scored with back-to-back DNFs for the first time since 2013; the then-31-year-old wrecked at Kentucky Speedway (June 30) and Daytona International Speedway (July 6) that season.
RELATED: Kansas race results
For the four-time Kansas winner, Sunday’s finish was a disappointing one for a driver who looked to find Victory Lane for a third time this year. Despite finishing seventh and eighth in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, clutch issues within the No. 11 Toyota quickly became apparent, which required lengthy strategy discussions over the radio between Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle. A slow pit stop on Lap 127 due to problems with the Toyota’s right-front wheel exacerbated the issue when combined with the No. 11 crew having to push-start Hamlin out of the box. The concerns reached a tough conclusion during final-stage stops when Hamlin’s Toyota stalled, resulting in the No. 11 going to the garage with terminal damage.
“Yeah, I think eventually just broke the transaxle trying to leave the stall there,” Hamlin said when speaking about the final incident. “Unfortunate for the Progressive Toyota team. Just really fast again — just can’t keep it together right now.”
WATCH: Hamlin, No. 11 crew discuss clutch issues | Hamlin goes to garage following mechanical problem
With the finish, Hamlin sits seventh in the championship standings, dropping four spots following the Kansas result. And while it’s worth noting that Hamlin finished the 2013 season 23rd in the standings — he missed four races due to injury — the longtime racer already has two wins under his belt in 2025 (Martinsville spring, Darlington spring). As such, a NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs berth is secured, giving him plenty of leeway to right the ship and contend for his elusive first Bill France Cup.
Although not a points-paying contest, Hamlin will look to rekindle early-season momentum this Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway during the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 2025 regular season will then resume at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25 for the Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
The good news for Hamlin? He is a former winner of the marathon crown-jewel race, triumphing in 2022. In other words, a turnaround could be right around the corner.
| Car No. | Driver | Organization | Crew chief | Chassis | Sponsor |
| 1 | Patrick Emerling | KPL Racing LLC | Dale Hedquist | LFR | Fleetworks, Inc. |
| 02 | Joey Coulter IV | Coulter Motorsports | Harold Holly | FURY Race Cars | SRI Performance; Bilstein Shocks; PFC Brakes; Molecule; Simpson |
| 3 | Tyler Rypkema | Boehler’s Racing Equipment | Greg Fournier | Boehler Racing | USNE; Northeast Drilling |
| 4 | Ryan Newman | Connolly Racing | TBA | FURY Race Cars | IGA; First Sanitation; The Ragg Co.; Fairvalue; Findley Properties; Mathis Equipment |
| 5 | Kyle Ebersole | Robert Ebersole | Bob Ebersole | FURY Race Cars | Ebersole Excavating, Inc. |
| 7 | Luke Baldwin | Tommy Baldwin Racing LLC | Tommy Baldwin | PSR Products | Baldwin Automotive |
| 8 | John-Michael Shenette | Eighty-Two Autosport | Scott Morin | LFR | USNE Power; Eighty-Two Services |
| 14 | Jake Lutz | Advantage Motorsports | Bill Putney | LFR | Advantage Trucks; Washtronic’s; Anastasi Trucking |
| 15 | Joey Cipriano III | Fueled Up Motorsports | Ryan Plourde | FURY Race Cars | Dependable Energy; The Bass Plating Company |
| 18 | Ken Heagy | Christopher Fleming | Greg Gorman | FURY Race Cars | Hunter Mechanical |
| 21 | Stephen Kopcik | Wanick Motorsports | Nick Kopcik | Troyer | Wanick Constructions, Inc.; Newtown Pools |
| 22 | Kyle Bonsignore | Kyle Bonsignore | Keith McDermott | FURY Race Cars | MTT; ChaLew Performance; Munns Auto |
| 23 | Carson Loftin | Brian Loftin | Brian Loftin | PSR Products | L&R Transmission; LeBleu Water; QMF Solutions |
| 36 | David Sapienza | Judith Thilberg | Greg Kleila | FURY Race Cars | Sapienza Enterprises; Eastport Feeds |
| 38 | Bobby Labonte | PSR Products | Neal Cantor | PSR Products | Cook-Out |
| 46 | Craig Lutz | Goodie Racing | Douglas Ogiejko | FURY Race Cars | Riverhead Building Supply |
| 51 | Justin Bonsignore | Kenneth Massa Motorsports, LLC | Ryan Stone | FURY Race Cars | Phoenix Communications, Inc. |
| 54 | Tommy Catalano | Catalano Motorsports | Rick Kluth | Troyer | FX Caprara; USNE |
| 55 | Jeremy Gerstner | GMR Enterprises | Dawn Gerstner | Troyer | Garage Doors of the Triad; Jerry Hunt Supercenter; Cherokee Underground |
| 56 | Trevor Catalano | Catalano Motorsports | JJ Vece | Troyer | USNE Power & Construction |
| 58 | Eric Goodale | Goodie Motorsports | Rob Hyer | FURY Race Cars | GAF Roofing |
| 59 | Tyler Barry | Jody Lauzon | Billy Michael | Chevrolet | Pro Systems Integration; BNP Machine |
| 60 | Matt Hirschman | Pee Dee/Elite Motorsports | Mike Stein | Troyer | Pee Dee Motorsports |
| 64 | Austin Beers | KLM Motorsports | Ron Yuhas | Troyer | G&G Electrical Supply, Lumiere Electrical, AP Marquadt & Sons, Dell Electric, Andrew James Interiors, Hughes Motors, Fast Tra |
| 77 | Corey LaJoie | Mike Curb | Gary Putnam | Troyer | Curb Records / Mohawk Northeast |
| 99 | Conner Jones | Mario Jamie Tomaino | Eddie Harvey | Troyer | Jones Utilities Construction |
| 112 | Brian Sones | DW Racing | Dennis Wenner | Troyer | DW Machine & Fabricating Co.; Bergen Industries |
| 129 | Mike Marshall | TLC Performance | Kevin Ledoux | Troyer | MLM Diagnostics; Jusczak Electric |
| 137 | Jake Crum | Jake Crum Racing | Justin Link | Troyer | Platinum Utility Group; Mount Airy Toyota |
| 140 | Luke Fleming | Chris Fleming | Christopher Fleming | PSR Products | Smith Trucking; Taylor Auto Parts; Perkins & Associates; Hodges Realty; Simmons Powersports |
| 155 | Teddy Hodgdon IV | THR LLC | Ted Hodgdon | FURY Race Cars | Montanari Fuel; Business Time Motorsports |
| 179 | Joey Braun | David Hill | David Hill | PSR Products | EME Industrial; Stutts Marina; Highmark Building Efficiency |
The wait is almost over. The 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway this Sunday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and the opportunity is still open for fans to vote their favorite driver into the contest.
RELATED: Time is running out — vote now! | Buy All-Star Race tickets
With less than a week to go before voting closes, here are the top five vote-getters in alphabetical order as of May 12: Shane van Gisbergen, Noah Gragson, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace.
The voting period closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday, a day before the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Open (May 18, 5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The fan vote winner will be revealed after the All-Star Open and before engines fire for the main event.
Fans can vote up to five times per day, per unique email address. NASCAR Fan Rewards members will receive a one-time 25-point bonus for their first vote.
MORE: Format for 2025 All-Star Race revealed
Notable past winners of the fan vote include Ken Schrader, who was first to receive the honor in 2004. Additional victors include Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2011), Danica Patrick (2013, ’15) and Clint Bowyer (2020). Noah Gragson has won the award each of the last two seasons (2023, ’24). Kasey Kahne (2008) currently stands as the sole fan vote winner to win the All-Star Race.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chase Briscoe’s weekend at Kansas Speedway was anything but straightforward.
Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was one of a handful of cars to have tires go down in Saturday’s practice session. With damage sustained, the No. 19 crew worked on repairs and opted to start from the rear of the field with the fixes.
Despite having to cut through the swath of the Cup Series field all day long, Briscoe rallied to net a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, his best result by far in nine career starts at the 1.5-mile track.
RELATED: Race results
“Our day was definitely just weird, right?” Briscoe said. “Having to go to the back after yesterday, tearing the whole bottom off and was OK the first run there. We were kind of going forward, and we had the green-flag pit stop and we had a wheel come off or something. Came out probably three-quarters of a straightaway behind the 5 [Kyle Larson], and was able to run him down, pass him, get back on the lead lap. So I knew my car was pretty good if I could ever get back up there.
“Then the second stage, I had a bad restart and the car just kind of went away for whatever reason. That whole second stage and start of the third stage, we made an adjustment and it came to life. I went from like 18th to 10th on a restart, and then 10th to sixth and just had a really, really bad vibration at the end. I couldn’t even see where I was going, so I was trying to just limp it around.”
Briscoe added that he had dealt with vibrations all day, but running third in the closing laps was when he started getting a feel similar to Saturday.
“That one was definitely the worst,” Briscoe said. “It just freaked me out because it was the exact same feeling I had in practice when I blew the tire yesterday. It really started coming with eight to 10 to go. I felt like I could have ran third for sure if it wasn’t for that.”
Race winner Kyle Larson dominated the field all day long as he begins the meat of his busy month of May that will conclude with his second attempt at the Indianapolis 500-Coca-Cola 600 double.
RELATED: Briscoe in starring role in Full Speed: Season 2
Larson led 221 of the 267 circuits, which is the most ever for a Kansas race, and crossed the 10,000 laps led mark in his Cup career.
Having raced with Larson for many years, Briscoe continues to be in awe of what the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver can produce amid a never-ending racing calendar.
“Kyle’s an incredible race car driver. I always say he’s the greatest of all time, right?” Briscoe said. “Me and my dad talk about it a lot where Kyle goes and runs a sprint car race, and it could be for $5,000 to win or $100, it doesn’t matter to him. He’s willing to risk it all and he doesn’t even think about it. It definitely separates him.”
With a third of the season under his belt, Briscoe is still getting his bearings with his new Joe Gibbs Racing team. Results have been mixed with five top 10s in 2025 for the fifth-year Cup veteran, but four finishes outside the top 20.
The speed is there, but the consistency of execution and having complete weekends at the track are still a work in progress for Briscoe and crew chief James Small.
“He’s open to suggestions. Still, I feel like [there’s] a lot of things that he can improve on,” Small told NASCAR.com. “I think we have a pretty good understanding of the car every week now. It’s just about execution on the day. When you have a clean day, we can run like this. We’ve proved all year. We’re still hurting ourselves. Our stage points is a [expletive] joke and we just need to start the races up front and maintain track position, and our life will get a lot easier.”
As Briscoe gets more accustomed to piloting the No. 19 Toyota, there’s still potential to be unlocked for the 30-year-old Indiana native.
Though he scored a pair of wins and made the playoffs twice in his first four seasons with the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing, Briscoe is now poised that his cars can take him to where he wants to go.
“Kevin Harvick says it all the time, you can’t drive a slow car fast,” Briscoe said. “Every time we came to Kansas, I ran 25th to 30th. As soon as I got out [today], I said, ‘Well, I guess it maybe wasn’t me this whole time.’ We just always go backwards every race and you can only drive the car as fast as it’ll go. JGR’s cars’ potential is just unbelievable compared to what I’m used to. I don’t know why that is, but it’s definitely mind-blowing. That’s what I’ve raced against my entire career for sure.”
Kyle Larson secured a springtime Kansas Speedway victory again Sunday afternoon, but this time with a more comfortable margin than last year’s 0.001-second squeaker. Larson scurried away with a dominant victory in the AdventHealth 400, leading 221 of 267 laps to prevail for the third time this year.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Kansas
For the rest of the field, some drivers will be leaving the Sunflower State on an upbeat note, while still others have some ground to make up after a Kansas day that didn’t yield the desired results. No points will be on the table in next weekend’s NASCAR All-Star Race, but here’s a half-dozen drivers with mixed fortunes from this weekend before the circuit heads to North Wilkesboro Speedway (Sunday, 8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a $1 million prize on the line.
THREE UP ⬆️
1. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Started: 3rd
Finished: 2nd
What happened: Bell notched a career-best Kansas Speedway result, something he said he needed after finishing the previous three races outside of the top five, including a crash-related 35th at Talladega last month. He wound up just 0.712 seconds behind at the checkered flag, and he moved up three spots to third place in the Cup Series standings.
What’s next: Bell is prepping for his fifth All-Star Race main event, and he’ll be looking for his first top-five finish in the non-points special. After that, Bell will be aiming to defend his crown in the Coca-Cola 600 when the Cup Series schedule resumes its points-paying ways.
2. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
Started: 10th
Finished: 3rd
What happened: Blaney made his Cup Series debut at Kansas back in 2014, and he matched his best finish there Sunday. He didn’t lead a lap in this most recent 400-miler, but the 31-year-old driver now possesses a solid string of four top-five results in his last five races.
What’s next: The 2022 All-Star Race winner has been consistent in the two editions of the event at North Wilkesboro, finishing sixth (2023) and fifth (2024). He also has a Coca-Cola 600 win, taming NASCAR’s longest race in 2023 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
3. Corey Heim, No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota
Started: 28th
Finished: 13th
What happened: The Craftsman Truck Series regular made his first Cup Series start of the season — and just his fourth overall — Sunday at Kansas. The rookie kept things relatively clean, getting back on the lead lap with a Lap 199 wave-around and pressing on after contact that triggered a multicar crash 14 laps later. The career-best finish was actually the day’s strongest for 23XI Racing, topping teammates Tyler Reddick (17th), Riley Herbst (27th) and Bubba Wallace (33rd).
What’s next: Heim said Saturday that the next start on his part-time Cup Series schedule is slated for June 1 at Nashville Superspeedway. In the meantime, he’ll be back at it when the Truck Series resumes for a Saturday showdown at North Wilkesboro, where he’ll aim to extend his lead in that tour’s point standings.
THREE DOWN ⬇️
1. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 7th
Finished: 24th
What happened: A rocky end to Stage 1 put the 27-year-old driver in a catch-up situation. A flat right-rear tire caused the No. 24 Chevy to scrape the outside retaining wall through Turns 3 and 4 during the 66th lap. Byron lost control with a lazy slide as he tried to bring the car to pit road and he fell to 32nd in the exchange. He clawed back into the top 25, but was still one lap down at the checkered flag — a result that dropped him from the Cup Series points lead, passed by Larson, his teammate.
What’s next: Byron will be in the All-Star feature’s field for the seventh consecutive year, but he’s still searching for his first top-five result in the invitational event. Beyond that, he’ll be going for his third straight top five in the Coca-Cola 600 at month’s end on his home track of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
2. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Started: 14th
Finished: 36th
What happened: Hamlin finished in the points at the end of both stages, but a clutch issue hindered the No. 11 Toyota team, slowing the veteran driver as he tried to leave his pit stall after stops for service. A Lap 127 stop was especially painful — trouble on the right front with an errant wheel fastener cost him time, and his crew had to push-start him. Hamlin’s car stalled again in a final-stage pit stop, and his team pushed the No. 11 to the garage with terminal damage.
What’s next: Hamlin started the springtime stretch with four consecutive top-five finishes, a span that included two wins. He heads into North Wilkesboro on a downswing with two straight DNFs. He has a history of strong All-Star performances, winning the 2015 edition and coming home second in last year’s race at the 0.625-mile oval.
3. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Started: 33rd
Finished: 38th
What happened: The No. 16 team’s race day in Kansas lasted just six laps when their Chevrolet went up in smoke, with engine failure the culprit. Allmendinger had scored top-10 finishes on two other 1.5-mile tracks (Las Vegas, Homestead) this season, but he sounded off with a salvo of fiery frustration on the team radio after his second consecutive DNF.
What’s next: Allmendinger was in the All-Star main event last year thanks to his Charlotte Roval win in the 2023 campaign. This year, he’ll have to race his way in or rely on the Fan Vote, but he’s transferred in before as a two-time winner of the All-Star Open last-chance race (2008, 2018).
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chase Elliott was up front, leading laps and seemingly poised to fight toward snapping a 38-race winless streak.
But one miscue at Lap 198 of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway unraveled an otherwise impressive day for the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, ultimately fading to a 15th-place finish.
MORE: Race results | Best Kansas photos
Elliott had impressive speed throughout the weekend, qualifying ninth and surging to second place at the end of both stages. A strong pit stop at the end of Stage 2 propelled Elliott to the lead to restart the final stage. Elliott did his part when the green flag waved to fend off teammate Kyle Larson and RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski to maintain the top spot.
A flat tire for Keselowski at Lap 195, however, triggered the first domino in derailing Elliott’s day. The caution flag waved and ushered in an ensuing round of pit stops that ultimately played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of Sunday’s race.
Elliott led the field to pit road and planted his No. 9 Prime Video Chevrolet into pit stall No. 41, the first box nearest pit entry. All looked routine as the crew serviced the right side of the car — until jackman TJ Semke dropped the jack a millisecond too early. Rear-tire changer Chad Avrit hadn’t yet secured the right-rear wheel before the car was lowered, forcing Semke to re-jack the vehicle for Avrit to tighten the lug nut.
The mistake marked the group’s only significant error of the contest, but the stop anchored Elliott in the box for over 14 seconds — a relative eternity in a NASCAR world rocketing forward with common eight-second services. Elliott plummeted from the lead to 16th place and never truly recovered. The 2020 Cup champion worked his way back to 12th place in the closing laps of the contest, but Todd Gilliland, Corey Heim and Noah Gragson all eventually worked past him to drop Elliott to 15th at the checkered flag.
On one hand, there are plenty of positives for Elliott, crew chief Alan Gustafson and the No. 9 crew to take from Kansas after leading 29 laps and averaging a fourth-best 6.37 running position, according to NASCAR’s loop data. Per NASCAR Insights, Elliott also ranked third in Defense Rating with the fifth-best Speed Rating and seventh-best Passing Rating.
But the end result dampens what could have been for Elliott, who ranked just 23rd in NASCAR Insights’ Restart Rating.
“It was great for the 9 this weekend,” said Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of competition. “They unloaded, they were good. Chase had very favorable comments about the race car straight out of the gate, which was really nice. I know that Alan and Chase are digging in deep and working extremely hard with their team to try to make sure that they do that on a weekly basis, because when they do, they execute very well.
“It’s unfortunate that issue happened today because I think we’d be sitting here with them easily in the top five with the pace that they had. But it only takes one hiccup and it can derail your day. So we’ve got to keep working on those things. But as long as they continue to bring good race cars and fast race cars and execute at a high level, they’re going to be where we need them.”
That particular round of pit stops ended others’ days while propelling others back into the mix.
Christopher Bell launched three spots forward to escape pit road with the lead at Lap 198 while his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe rocketed four spots up to sixth. Bell was a constant presence inside the top five Sunday, but Briscoe largely struggled to start the event before leaping to a fourth-place finish.
Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, another JGR driver, suffered a mechanical failure, speculating that the transaxle broke on his No. 11 Toyota while attempting to leave his pit stall with an already-broken clutch.
A handful of quick cautions in succession — first for spins by Cody Ware, Daniel Suárez and Ty Dillon, then for Kyle Busch and again for a five-car incident — jumbled the running order once again before Larson finally emerged as the day’s dominant driver, leading 221 of 267 laps to score his third Kansas win.
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 to win the AdventHealth 400 at the 1.5-mile track.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
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 active full-time drivers.
MORE: Drivers with most laps led in history
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.
SHOP: Winner gear
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 a moment, 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.
The Cup Series will line up next weekend for the annual NASCAR All-Star Race, returning to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the third straight season for Sunday’s 250-lapper (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The next points-paying race is the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25 (May 25, 6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Larson as the winner. The Nos. 17 and 77 cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina for inspection.
Brad Keselowski found final-stage trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, hitting the wall and spoiling a promising day at Kansas Speedway.
Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing Ford was running second in the 38-car field when a rear tire lost pressure in the 195th of 267 laps in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400. He halted the car on the apron at the exit of Turn 2 and was towed away, finishing 37th in the 38-car field.
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“Just a lot of things that are not coming together, and that’s how the sport goes,” Keselowski said. “You ride the wave, and we’re on the bad side of the wave, but we’re going to push hard to get to the right side of it.”
Keselowski also had a rear-tire issue in Saturday’s practice session. He dropped to the rear of the field for Sunday’s start because of unapproved adjustments, and he said that Sunday’s tire issue came with little warning. “Not really,” Keselowski said, “just went a big boom.”
Keselowski, who qualified 36th, entered Sunday’s 400-miler ranked 32nd in the Cup Series standings. He drove into contention and ended Stage 2 in sixth place to collect stage points.
The owner/driver is still seeking his first top-10 result in what’s been a rocky first 12 races to start the 2025 season. Sunday’s outcome marked his third consecutive DNF and his fifth this year, but there was at least a silver-lining effect to be found in the No. 6 team’s performance before his race unraveled.
“I mean, we put ourselves in position like that, you win races,” Keselowski said, “and I felt like this is a pretty significant overhaul of the 6 team from where we were last year, and there are some pieces that are starting to click and maybe not getting the result, but showing the potential to get the result. Today was a step forward for us, even though the running order, the finishing order is not going to show it.”
MORE: Cup Series schedule
The Cup Series turns next week to the annual NASCAR All-Star Race, and Keselowski is qualified for the main event by virtue of his victory last spring at Darlington Raceway. He won’t be able to stem the tide in the non-points event and will have to wait two weeks to get that chance at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“Go win the Coke 600 — that’s where my emotions are at,” said Keselowski, now 33rd in Cup points. “Bring cars and speed like this to the Coke 600 and let’s go win it.”
