Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson made a statement in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Retaking the lead from Chase Briscoe with seven laps left, Larson won for the second time in three races and took control of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1.

Larson’s fourth victory at the 1.5-mile track left him 26 points ahead of second-place Denny Hamlin, who entered The Chase as the top seed. Christopher Bell is 50 points back in third after finishing sixth on Sunday.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I really thought when Chase got by, he was just going to stretch out, but I got some lines going where I could settle in and try to take care of my tires,” said Larson, who lost the lead to Briscoe on Lap 238 of 267. “I don’t know. I think it’s just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.

“With me out front, I’m just defending and trying to guess on what lines are fast. When he got in front of me, I could see he started getting really loose. Yeah, that was fun. That was such a good day. Max points. I was going to be happy with second with how the race went, but to get the lead, that’s a big deal for the points.”

The victory was Larson’s second of the season and 34th of his career, tying him with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for 26th all time.

Though Larson, the defending series champion, won the first two stages, led 235 laps, and set the fastest lap (30.076 seconds on Lap 2) to score a maximum 76 points for the day, the win was hardly a foregone conclusion after the final cycle of green-flag pit stops.

SHOP: Winner gear

After following Briscoe to pit road on Lap 216 with a last-second call, Larson regained the top spot at the end of the pit cycle, but he scraped the wall early in the final run. Briscoe ran Larson down from 1.5 seconds back and passed the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the lead on Lap 238.

Briscoe held the top spot for 23 laps, but his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota developed a loose condition late in the run, and Larson made up the ground he had lost. On Lap 261, Larson darted to the inside of Briscoe’s Camry and completed the winning pass.

Contact with the wall cost Briscoe in the final laps, as both runner-up Austin Cindric and third-place Hamlin passed him on the way to the checkered flag. Briscoe held fourth, followed by Ryan Blaney, who is now fifth in the standings, 91 points behind Larson.

“Yeah, just went really, really loose,” Briscoe said of the closing laps. “I kind of had that the run before when we did the green-flag pit stop. I got it in the wall so many times that I had a little bit of a leak. Just went really, really free ultimately.

“It was better for me to be in second. Just being behind (Larson), especially with how much he was aero blocking, it would just tighten me up and allow me to actually be a little bit better. And then as soon as I would get the lead, I would just go really, really free again.

“So, yeah, frustrating for sure. Yeah, just felt like I had a win there to stay in contention for a championship, and obviously now losing, I don’t know, 123 points back (in eighth place), that’s probably not going to happen.”

With perhaps the fastest long-run car in the race, Cindric closed to 0.565 seconds behind Larson at the finish.

Cindric, however, lost time on the track by pitting one lap later than Larson and Briscoe. He was 4.6 seconds down to the leader when pit stops cycled out and spent the rest of the race trying to close the gap.

“I just feel like that cycle could have gone better for us,” Cindric said. “I feel like just the way it all played out with three cars coming in front, and I slipped through the box a little bit, having some stuff on my tires. I could have done a better job there.

“When you only lose by half a second, I wish I would have had at least a shot at it. I felt like we could have at least joined the fun at least. But no, proud of the effort and great points for today.”

MORE: Chase standings | Cup Series schedule

Cindric scored 52 points to Larson’s 76 and is tied with Bubba Wallace for ninth in The Chase standings, 140 points behind Larson.

Behind Bell, William Byron ran seventh, followed by Chase Elliott, Wallace and Ryan Preece. Tyler Reddick made a remarkable recovery after running 33rd in his ill-handling Toyota early in the race and finished 11th. Reddick’s rally could have been even better, but for a blown pit stop under green in the final cycle.

Joey Logano, who started from the pole by the rule book when rain washed out time trials, finished 20th and fell from third to fourth in the standings, a distant 67 points out of the lead.

Ten of the 16 Chase drivers are now 111 points or more behind Larson, with 14th-place finisher Daniel Suárez 187 points down in 16th place.

After finishing fourth in Stage 1, Bristol pugilist Carson Hocevar was part of a six-car restart wreck on Lap 123. With severe damage to the splitter on his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Hocevar finished 33rd and dropped three spots to 11th in the standings, 150 points in arrears.

Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Larson as the Kansas winner. The Nos. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 12 Team Penske Ford and 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will go to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for engine dynamometer testing.

Stage 2 recap: Larson continues domination with another stage victory

Kyle Larson won Stage 2 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Austin Cindric finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell. William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10 and points earners. Keselowski is the only non-Chase driver.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results | Watch Larson clinch Stage 2

After his dominant Stage 1 victory, Larson fired back out to the lead to begin the second frame. He extended his margin to four seconds over Hamlin, before Cindric – who started the race 11th – climbed into second at Lap 104.

The first caution for incident came at Lap 114, when Noah Gragson went up in smoke in Turns 1 and 2. He told his No. 4 Front Row Motorsports team that he blew up, while other drivers reported fluid on the racing surface. Gragson was scored with a 36th-place finish, last in the running order.

All lead-lap drivers pitted during the caution. Larson won the race off pit road, taking four fresh Goodyear tires and fuel. Cindric dropped two positions on pit road, marking the third consecutive stop where he lost ground to open the race. Before The Chase started, Team Penske swapped the Nos. 2 and 12 pit crews.

The first multicar incident of the race came on the ensuing restart at Lap 121, when Carson Hocevar moved right and contacted the right side of Ty Gibbs’ car, forcing him into Bubba Wallace. Erik Jones and Josh Berry were also involved. Keselowski, who has a recent history with Hocevar, was behind him on the bottom for the restart, but replays were inconclusive as to whether they made contact. Keselowski’s RFK Racing teammate and Chaser Ryan Preece narrowly avoided the melee.

READ: More details about the crash

At the time of the crash, Hocevar ran 11th. All cars but Gibbs came down pit road for repairs. Berry fell multiple laps down, but the others remained on the lead lap.

Larson assumed his advantage on the Lap 127 restart and cruised to another stage victory when the green/checkered flag waved at Lap 165.

Stage 1 recap: Larson wins opening stage at Kansas

Kyle Larson won Stage 1 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Larson, the two-time and defending series champion, dominated the opening frame. He led 78 of 80 laps.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results | Watch Larson capture Stage 1 honors

Denny Hamlin finished second, followed by Austin Cindric, Carson Hocevar and Christopher Bell. Joey Logano, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10 and points earners. The entire top 10 was comprised of Chase drivers.

Chase Briscoe finished 12th, Ryan Preece 13th, Chris Buescher 14th, Bubba Wallace 16th and Daniel Suárez 23rd. Tyler Reddick dropped from 15th at the start to 28th, the worst among Chase drivers in the opening stanza.

Stage 1 was completed without incident. The only stoppage came for a Lap 35 competition caution after rain washed out Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Staff Report

Kansas Speedway is on deck for the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this weekend, with both series continuing The Chase presented by Mobil 1. For the Cup Series, the 1.5-mile track will host the fourth of 10 postseason races and the first of three consecutive races at 1.5-mile tracks. Meanwhile, the Truck Series will race in its second of seven Chase races. Bookmark this page and return often for your race-week essentials, from qualifying orders and pit stalls to results and more.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule | TV listings | Goodyear tire setup

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available. 

Tires: Eleven total sets — eight new sets for the race, two for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race. 

Entry List 
Qualifying Order (CANCELED)
Practice Results (CANCELED)
Practice Lap Averages (CANCELED)
Practice Lap Times (CANCELED)
Starting Lineup (SET BY RULE BOOK)
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results 
Race Results 

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five total sets — three new sets for the race, one for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List 
Qualifying Order (CANCELED)
Practice Results (CANCELED)
Practice Lap Averages (CANCELED)
Practice Lap Times (CANCELED)
Starting Lineup (SET BY RULE BOOK)
Pit Stalls 
Stage 1 Results 
Stage 2 Results 
Race Results

Posted on by Zack Albert

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Legacy Motor Club will keep its longest-tenured NASCAR Cup Series driver in the fold next season and beyond, signing Erik Jones to a multiyear contract extension as driver of its No. 43 Toyota. 

The team made the announcement Sunday morning at Kansas Speedway, where Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will mark the fourth of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. The core of the No. 43 group will stay intact, with Justin Alexander also set to return as Jones’ crew chief.

RELATED: Key players in Silly Season

Jones is in his sixth season with the No. 43 team, and he described the negotiating period with Legacy management as “really straightforward,” with team leadership reaffirming its commitment to its longest-serving driver. The 30-year-old Michigan native says he’s found a comfort level with the organization, which will grow to a three-car operation in 2027.

“I mean, it would definitely feel weird walking in somewhere else, I guess, is the best way to look at it,” Jones said with a grin. “When I go to the shop and see the group and see the shop floor and the people there, it definitely feels comfortable to me and feels like I belong there. At the end of the day, I’ve been one of the longer-standing ones there, so feeling, I guess, just appreciated and respected and needed and wanted at a company always feels good, and I have that in Legacy right now. So yeah, it feels like home to me.” 

The description of “longer-standing” feels apt for Jones, who began his stint with the No. 43 team under the Richard Petty Motorsports banner with ties to Chevrolet. The team’s entries are now Toyotas, and the organization morphed from Petty GMS to Legacy Motor Club as shifts in ownership changed the team’s dynamic, with seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson taking the reins and bringing in a host of strategic partners. 

More change is due next season with the addition of a third chartered entry on the Cup Series grid, and two new teammates for Jones as Josh Berry and Riley Herbst come on board. The seemingly lone constant amid all the overhauls is Jones, who continues his link to one of the sport’s most iconic car numbers.

“To say it’s not been a bit chaotic at times would probably be untruthful,” said Jones, who arrived to drive for a lightly funded, single-car No. 43 team in 2021. “… There were maybe 30 people that worked at the shop at that time, and I think there’s two or three of us that are still with the company now. So it’s a lot different than what it was the first day I walked in that shop, but it’s all been stuff that’s been to try to make the program better. …

“With everything we have going on, it’s going in a good direction. It’s still got obviously room to go and room to grow, and we’re growing with this Next Gen car each and every year. Everybody, especially the top teams, get a little better, and we’re just trying to keep with that escalation as everybody improves, but yeah, it’s definitely been a lot of change. I hope that we can get settled in. I feel like there’s … I have a long time I can race if I want to, and I do want to right now, so being with one group for that time for the next stretch would be great for me.”

That feeling is mutual, says Michael Guttilla, a longtime motorsports executive who was named Legacy Motor Club president in April. Guttilla indicated that the continuity of keeping Jones and Alexander intact as the core of the No. 43 team was “an intentional part” of the organization’s long-term plans

“I think we’ve talked a lot about what Legacy’s goals are going forward, and with Jimmie Johnson coming on board and the current ownership structure and the team that’s been put in place, we are on a five-year journey,” Guttilla said. “We’re one year into that, and Erik is the cornerstone of that and has been. He’s been continuously building our program and making it stronger, and so we were just really happy to be able to put a multiyear deal together that would be consistent with that time frame, and for our families, for our fans, for our hard-working employees and our partners, we just knew this was going to be the mix. And there’s such mutual trust between Erik and LMC and what we’re building, and LMC and Erik and his abilities to get us where we desire to be.”

Legacy Motor Club’s pending expansion will mean more effort to establish the third team, but Jones says he sees performance positives to be made from the growth. Jones ranks 21st in the Cup Series standings, six spots ahead of outgoing teammate John Hunter Nemechek heading into Sunday’s race at Kansas, but foresees the benefits of information sharing providing a lift once a new-look Legacy M.C. lineup takes flight.

“Adding a third car in is huge for us,” Jones said. “We, as a company, only have our two data points right now, and having one more is a help, and it’s going to continue to help us get better. So finding all the right matches for everybody is never easy, and I hope next year we can get the ball rolling, and everybody’s happy with where they’re at, and this can be a lineup that we have for a while.”

Jones will also welcome some continuity atop the No. 43 pit box as he seeks to end a seven-year postseason drought. Alexander assumed the crew chief role at the start of the season, bringing a wealth of experience from his long-running tenure at Richard Childress Racing, where he produced five Cup Series wins while paired with Austin Dillon.

Jones said he wasn’t particularly close with Alexander before their partnership began. Since then, he’s discovered that his crew chief favors an easy, open line of communication, one that’s rooted in honesty and a shared level of respect.

“We both believe in each other,” Jones said. “We both know our abilities. We’re both comfortable that we’re trying to be the best we can each week, and that we’re doing the work to show up and be ready to go when we get to the track. There’s never felt like there’s any doubt in that, and we’re always on the same page most of the time about where we’re trying to head with competition, what our struggles are. I feel like we’re honest about that, from whether that’s a struggle that we’re trying to get better at personally on competition, or if it’s something as a company that we need to improve on, I feel like we’re always pretty close on those pages. So that part’s been great, and just the communication, really.”

Posted on by Dustin Albino

KANSAS City, Kan. — Chase Briscoe entered The Chase presented by Mobil 1 riding high after a strong regular-season close. Three races into NASCAR’s postseason, the momentum has all but vanished.

Briscoe, who was among the favorites to hoist the 2026 Bill France Cup, began the postseason as the No. 5 seed but has faded to ninth in the standings, now 87 points behind leader Kyle Larson. He knows timing is running out to make another late-season charge.

RELATED: Kansas lineup | At-track photos

“We are flirting with disaster, I would say, with two not ideal finishes,” Briscoe said on Saturday at Kansas Speedway. “Just have to win races. We’ve seen how big the winning races deal can really change the points.”

Briscoe began The Chase by leading 30 laps and a sixth-place finish at Darlington Raceway. In a chaotic, 18-caution race at World Wide Technology Raceway, the No. 19 team was in position to snag a top 10 before fellow title threat Chase Elliott had a brake rotor explode entering Turn 1 on Lap 213. Briscoe was the innocent bystander and was clobbered into the wall by Elliott’s No. 9 car. He was credited with a 32nd-place finish.

Last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, Briscoe was hovering around the top five but slipped into the wall with six laps remaining and broke a toe link. That plummeted him down the running order, finishing 27th. Through three events, he has a 21.7 average finish, ranked 14th out of the 16 Chase drivers, only better than Elliott (22.7) and Ryan Blaney (24.0).

“You budget in one mulligan, I feel like,” Briscoe noted. “In a perfect world, you don’t want to have any, and for us to have two with Talladega still in there is definitely not ideal. You have to win races. If you don’t win a race in these final 10 races, you’re not going to win the championship anyway.

“We just need to win races. After last year winning three, we’ve only won one this year. We want to win more races. We will let the points be where they are and try to score as many as we can.”

Briscoe vows to be more aggressive on restarts, despite knowing the risk versus reward. The James Small-led bunch may need to get even more creative on in-race strategy, knowing that points are a premium.

This isn’t a new position for the No. 19 team. Briscoe stumbled out of the gates to begin the 2026 campaign and wasn’t frequently inside the top 20 in the overall standings until after the eighth race of the season at Bristol. Consistency was key as he climbed up the points, banking at least 34 markers in 12 of the final 19 races of the regular season.

But while winning is at the top of the priority list, the No. 19 team can’t afford to lose out on valuable stage points compared to his opponents.

“If you win the race but don’t get any stage points, it’s kind of a wash to those guys that get stage points,” he added. “It all has to come together.

“St. Louis was wrong place, wrong time. But last week, it was self-inflicted with five to go. Frustrating from that standpoint.”

Up next is 267 circuits at Kansas (Sun., 3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Toyota has dominated the laps-led category in recent years. Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025, Briscoe has finished no worse than fourth in three starts at the “Sunflower State” track.

The mission is clear for Kansas: chip away at that 87-point deficit, especially with his championship competition also having a strong history at Kansas.

“This week, you have to take points away from the leader,” Briscoe stated. “You have to make that gap smaller. If it gets bigger after this week, you are in big, big, big trouble. Say tomorrow, we have a 75-point day, then you’re not back in it, but you still have a legitimate chance if you can win another race or two.”

Posted on by Brandon White

MARTINSVILLE, Va. .. Two years ago, Caden Kvapil got to watch his older brother Carson earn his first ValleyStar Credit Union 300 victory at Martinsville Speedway.

The moment brought about plenty of emotions for Caden. He was proud to see his brother’s hard work pay off in the Late Model Stock Car equivalent of the Daytona 500, but it also served as a source of motivation.

One day, he would be a ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner, as well.

That moment arrived for Caden on Saturday on a cool, autumn evening at Martinsville. After diligently working over Corey Heim during the second half of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, Caden finally made his way to the lead and managed to hold off the field on an overtime restart, adding his name to the notable list of winners in the event.

By winning the Hampton Heat in July and placing sixth in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, Caden also secured the 2026 Virginia Triple Crown championship. Being able to claim those two accomplishments was something Caden never would have imagined when he saw Carson win Martinsville himself in 2024.

“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet,” Caden said. “I’m still kind of speechless and can’t really believe it. I’m sure after everything soaks in, it’ll kind of feel unreal. Two years ago, when I started Late Model Stock racing, this was kind of all a dream, and I didn’t really think I could do it either with just my abilities in general.

“To win the Triple Crown and Martinsville, some of the most prestigious races you can run in Late Model Stock racing, it’s kind of crazy to even think about.”

If he wanted to be a ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner like Carson, Caden knew he needed to rely on the one factor that has always been synonymous with his family: work ethic.

From the moment their respective careers began, Caden and Carson’s father in 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil instilled into them the importance of a blue-collar mindset. The Kvapils always work on their own cars and have continued that philosophy since joining JR Motorsports.

With Travis guiding them every step of the way, the Kvapils wasted no time making a name for themselves in racing. Carson racked up wins and titles in both Late Model Stocks and Super Late Models while Caden became a Pro Late Model champion, an accomplishment that helped him succeed Carson at JR Motorsports later.

Naturally, competition breaks out between the brothers. Caden even bested Carson in a Late Model Stock during last year’s South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway. Yet no matter the circumstances, Carson and Caden have each other’s backs.

That bond was apparent Saturday when Carson, whose bid for a second ValleyStar Credit Union 300 ended early due to a mechanical failure, shifted his focus over to being a crew member for Caden, a role reversal from two years earlier.

“Having [Carson] work on my car at halfway, trying to make the right adjustments for me was even cooler to see,” Caden said. “I got out of the car, and he was the one with the wrenches. That was really special. It’s a really big family thing with me, him and my dad, my mom and my sister. We’ve put a whole lot of work into this and have a whole lot of pride in it, too.”

Caden & Travis Kvapil
With his father Travis Kvapil a constant presence in his life, Caden Kvapil has blossomed into one of the best young prospects in NASCAR alongside his older brother Carson. (Photo: Katherine Gawlik/NASCAR)

Many of the crew members on Caden’s No. 88 Jerky Boys Chevrolet were a part of Carson’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 triumph. Being able to experience that moment from a different perspective made Carson further appreciate the sacrifices it took for him and Caden to become successful.

Nothing was ever guaranteed to the Kvapils. Every race was a fight for survival to prove they had the talent to make it to NASCAR’s top levels. Carson is grateful he landed a full-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series ride, but he also understands Caden may not get a similar reward even after his ValleyStar Credit Union 300 victory.

From Carson’s experience, the big win will help Caden. So will a sustained commitment to the family’s established work ethic.

“You’ve got to put in the effort,” Carson said. “The only way you’re ever going to make it in this sport is to work harder than everybody else, do better than everybody else and outrun everybody else. For me and my brother, we’re fighting to get a shot. It’s a really tough sport, and you got to be in front of the right eyes at the right time and win the right races.

“Still then, you might have a shot to make it.”

Caden is more confident in his own future following the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. The event attracted more than 80 competitors, among them being a two-time NASCAR Cup Series winner in Heim and 2023 NASCAR Canada Series champion Treyten Lapcevich, who nearly passed Caden during the overtime restart.

With every victory, Caden gets closer to the expectations he set for himself as a JR Motorsports driver. Matching Carson’s stats with the program was always going to be difficult, but Caden wanted to build his own reputation while simultaneously continuing JR Motorsports’ standard of success.

As a Virginia Triple Crown champion for JR Motorsports, Caden believes he has made his own distinct mark in the organization’s short-track history.

“This year has gone better than I could have imagined,” Caden said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. My brother was exceptional in this car. When I got the opportunity to drive it after him, I felt like I had big shoes to fill. It’s tough because I feel like I’ve always been compared to him growing up racing with him.

“It’s not that I don’t like it. I don’t really care, but whenever he’s had such good success and I’m supposed to try and replicate it, I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself to do that.”

Caden Kvapil
Caden Kvapil became the fourth driver to win a ValleyStar Credit Union and Virginia Triple Crown in the same year, joining Timothy Peters, Peyton Sellers and Trevor Ward (Photo: Alexis Edwards/NASCAR Regional)

Now that he has both a ValleyStar Credit Union 300 and a Virginia Triple Crown to his name, Caden hopes more opportunities beyond Late Model Stocks keep materializing. Caden made his ARCA Menards Series debut at Toledo Speedway in May before qualifying for his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway last week.

Carson understands the uncertainty Caden feels about his future. There were plenty of times when Carson believed Late Model Stocks would be his terminus in racing, a reality he was prepared to accept.

The ValleyStar Credit Union 300 triumph served as a major boost to Carson’s NASCAR ambitions, so he has every reason to believe a similar scenario could unfold for his younger brother.

“I was in his shoes at one point too,” Carson said. “I was racing the late model, trying to win the ValleyStar and finally winning the ValleyStar, all that good stuff. The next time you sit in a seat is not guaranteed. You never know when the last one is. Before my O’Reilly wins, this was the biggest one of my career.

“This might be the biggest win of his career, and 20 years from now, he’s looking back on it like I thought I would be.”

Long-term plans were not a major concern for any of the Kvapils on Saturday night. The evening was a chance for the family to relish in the fact that two of its members now possessed a grandfather clock from Martinsville.

As for what Caden plans to do with his newly acquired clock, he does have a couple of ideas.

“We had a trophy shelf in our shop, and it’s gotten full within the last three years,” Caden said. “A lot of our trophies are either in our rooms or the living room just sat on the floor. They take up a lot of space, and [Carson’s] clock is right next to the couch. He always asks me what time it is. Now that I have a clock, I can tell him I know what time it is.

“I’ll probably put mine right in front of his to block it and make him mad, or I’ll put it next to it. Probably next to it to have some respect.”

The debate over where Caden’s grandfather clock will go in the Kvapil household is going to come later. Caden was just proud to have it and the Virginia Triple Crown in his possession, a perfect culmination to the philosophy that has long defined his family.

Hard work will always pay off.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The opening two races of the Craftsman Truck Series postseason have been anything but normal for No. 1 seed Layne Riggs. Yet despite the struggles, Riggs remains 37 points behind championship leader Kaden Honeycutt leaving Kansas Speedway.

While Honeycutt dominated Saturday’s Race to Stop Suicide 200 by making it a clean sweep of all three stages and leading 111 of 134 circuits, Riggs had multiple woes that plunged him to 19th at the checkered flag.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Kansas

Before a four-hour, 47-minute red flag due to intermittent precipitation, his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports crew had a slow stop, leaving all five lug nuts on the left-front wheel loose, dropping Riggs deep in the running order. Once the race resumed, he drove from 16th position to ninth place in the opening lap of the restart. Six laps later, he rocketed to the runner-up position, glued to the back bumper of Honeycutt.

That’s where Riggs remained for much of the final third of the race. In one last attempt to track down Honeycutt, he clipped the outside wall while running against the boards through Turns 3 and 4, cutting the right-front tire with two laps remaining. The No. 34 Ford limped to the finish, losing 17 positions – and 17 points.

“I tried too hard,” Riggs said of running against the wall, inching closer to the No. 11 Toyota. “I got up there like I had been doing at the very top, and when I got into [Honeycutt’s] wake, it was a little too much. These trucks are so sensitive that when you barely touch the right-rear, it sucks the right-front around.

“I’m disappointed in myself. I let my crew down, for sure. I felt like I should have been a lot smarter, thinking bigger picture and know that I could have easily come out of here second and had a lot better shot. But I just made it a whole lot harder for myself. It’s going to be something I beat myself up on all week long before we go to Charlotte.”

The motto within the four walls of Front Row Motorsports is to hunt trophies. Drew Blickensderfer, competition director at Front Row, consoled Riggs for a couple of minutes while the six-time 2026 winner sat in his hot rod before unbuckling. Blickensderfer wanted his driver to put Kansas in the rearview immediately.

“Bob Jenkins (team owner) wants winners here – we don’t want to just ride around,” Blickensderfer told NASCAR.com on pit road. “You’ve got to judge that, but now is not the time to beat yourself up over it. Now is the time to try to look forward and go win races. Go win the next three or four. This team and that driver is capable of doing it.”

After entering The Chase presented by Mobil 1 opener at Bristol Motor Speedway with a 25-point cushion over Honeycutt, Riggs has lost 62 markers in the opening two events to the No. 11 truck. The No. 34 bunch had another pit-road mishap in Thunder Valley, causing Riggs to lose multiple laps and take the checkered flag in 32nd position after owning the first two stages.

While Riggs acknowledged his concern about the pit-road mistakes, he took full ownership of the Kansas defeat.

“I should have been thinking about the next five races, but I was thinking about putting it on one,” Riggs stated. “But we’re not out of this. Five races is a lot; can flip the script pretty fast. We just have to stay on our toes; we have to be better on pit road than we did today. We have some good tracks coming up for us.

“Definitely going to need to digest this one before I can move on. I need to think about it, process it, put it in the past and then we can focus on the next one.”

Given Riggs’ clear advantage in wins, stage victories and laps led in 2026, he believes the deficit to Honeycutt is more than manageable. For Honeycutt, the mission is simpler: continue doing what he’s done through the first two races and put Tricon Garage in position to win consecutive Truck Series championships.

“I just focus on winning the race,” Honeycutt said in his winner’s post-race press conference. “I think if you try to do anything other than that, you are pulling yourself out of the gate. That’s all this team focuses on – that’s our mentality. We just focus on winning, and winning takes care of points and everything that comes in handy.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

Track: Kansas Speedway
Location: Kansas City, Kansas
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 3 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Stages: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit stall assignments

Intermediate-sized tracks, big-sized pressure in Chase

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Times have radically changed in the roughly five months since the NASCAR Cup Series last visited Kansas Speedway. Since then, the prevailing conventional wisdom that was accepted as gospel looks a little less trustworthy.

It’s also been 12 weeks since the most recent 1.5-mile track appeared on the Cup Series schedule: Independence Day weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Three intermediate-style tracks now loom ahead during a crucial moment in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, and the timing comes front-loaded with pressure to perform.

That’s the thought, at least.

“You guys overstate a lot of things, so what’s new?” 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace said during a midweek availability, offering a smirk and a playful jab at the NASCAR media. That said, Wallace also lent credence to the importance of this stretch: “I think the next three races is a good indicator of who your champion will be.”

Answering that weighty question may hinge on the happenings in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the fourth of 10 races in this year’s postseason. Races at 1.5-milers in Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway will follow before a variety pack of four races closes out the year.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Kansas

But the first order of business awaits in the heartland, where recent history may not make the picture much clearer. Two drivers who qualified for this year’s Chase illustrate the point.

Back in April, Tyler Reddick converted with a furious overtime charge that sealed his fifth victory in the season’s first nine races, capping one of the hottest starts in recent memory. Meanwhile, Joey Logano struggled to a pedestrian 30th-place finish, his No. 22 Team Penske Ford two laps down at the end and his postseason hopes in limbo. Logano said revisiting that result was an unwelcome part of the preparation for Sunday’s race.

“I didn’t want to, but I did,” Logano said with a laugh. “Yeah. We try to learn as quickly as possible and move on. Think about the good stuff again.”

The good stuff has come in bunches for the No. 22 team since, with three wins in the last nine weeks — including a victory in last weekend’s showdown at Bristol Motor Speedway. Though Logano’s record this year on intermediate ovals is subpar — his average finish of 20.4 on this track type ranks last among the 16 Chase drivers — there’s something to be said for his well-timed head of steam.

“I mean, momentum is confidence, so you hope to ride that as long as you can,” said Logano, a three-time Kansas winner who will start from the pole position Sunday after a qualifying washout. “We’re on a good little hot streak here over the last 10-plus weeks, where we’ve really scratched and clawed from 20th in points to third, so proud of that. Proud of that effort, and got ourselves close. There’s a long ways to go in the season, though.”

On the flip side of the “where are they now” coin from the last Kansas race to this one is Reddick, who could do no wrong at the season’s start but has faded with finishes of 25th and 18th the last two weeks. The 23XI Racing driver entered as the Chase’s third seed, but his 35-point deficit has grown to 61 points since the postseason began — a continuation of a troubling midseason skid.

Five wins came in quick succession at the outset of the 2026 campaign, but Reddick hasn’t visited Victory Lane in the 20 races since. His most recent Kansas triumph, he said, provides a reason not to panic.

“We’ll go do what we need to do, and I don’t think desperation will get me anywhere,” Reddick said. “We’ll just go about our business and make the most out of this weekend. … That’s just where I want my mindset to be. I think desperation is reckless, careless, and it won’t do us any good, if that makes sense. I don’t think we’re quite at that point yet.”

Panic or not, Kansas is expected to set the tone for the trio of intermediate tracks that make up the heart of The Chase’s schedule.

“Yeah, I mean they’re all unique in their own way, but at the same time, I think the guys who are going to be fast this weekend, it’s going to carry over to Vegas and Charlotte — just the certain speed of a race track and things like that,” said Ryan Blaney, who made his Cup Series debut here in 2014. “So they get, like, progressively rougher each track, which is kind of fun. Vegas is rougher than here. Charlotte’s rougher than Vegas. But I think your guys who are going to run good here this weekend are probably going to run up toward the front at Vegas and Charlotte. I mean, I could be wrong. I don’t know, but usually that’s kind of a trend.”

The Cup Series fields barrels toward Turn 1 during last year's playoff race at Kansas Speedway
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Setting the intermediate pace

If time out front at the 1.5-mile tracks this season is any indicator, Chase-eligible drivers have a leg up on capturing Sunday’s laurels. Tops among them are the current lead pair in the Cup Series standings.

With a crucial stretch of intermediate-sized tracks looming in the heart of the postseason, here’s a look at the lap leaders on the 1.5-mile circuits so far this year:

DriverLaps ledChase rank
Denny Hamlin3912nd
Kyle Larson1771st
Christopher Bell1454th
Tyler Reddick1297th
William Byron12013th
Chase Briscoe899th
Chase Elliott8712th
Corey Heim70Not eligible

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Kansas hub: Weekend information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Revisiting 1.5-mile tracks, more keys from Kansas crew chiefs | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs for the Sunflower State | View gallery
• Neil Paine: Pivotal three-race stretch of intermediate tracks on tap | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from Kansas Speedway | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Joey Logano makes a post-Bristol leap | This week’s ranks

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — On a near-perfect day, with the weather a notable exception, Kaden Honeycutt leaves Kansas Speedway with a victory in the Race to Stop Suicide.com 200 and control of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase.

Honeycutt led 111 of 134 laps on Saturday, won the first two stages and asserted the superiority of his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota late in the race to claim the series lead by 37 points over star-crossed Layne Riggs, who clipped the outside wall in the closing laps and finished 19th.

Riggs overcame a bungled stop on pit road to run second until contact with the wall dropped him through the field on the final two laps.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“We just executed,” said Honeycutt, who won for the first time at 1.5-mile Kansas, the third time this season and the third time in his career. “We executed all night. I can’t thank my pit crew enough.

“Sorry I didn’t do any burnouts. We’ve got to save this thing for Homestead (the final Chase race). The motors cost a lot, too.”

Intermittent rainstorms halted the race after 70 laps, with drivers and their crews waiting through a red-flag period of 4 hours, 47 minutes for the resumption.

“Thanks to NASCAR and everyone for letting us finish the race,” said Honeycutt, who was third when rain interrupted the proceedings. “It started raining again in Victory Lane.”

When the second Chase event of the postseason restarted on Lap 78, Honeycutt resumed his dominance, passing Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes, who had taken the top two spots by staying out on older tires.

From that point, it was clear sailing until Riggs took two tires to Honeycutt’s four on the final pit stop under caution on Lap 117. Riggs restarted third and grabbed the lead on Lap 122, but Honeycutt powered past him a lap later and held the lead the rest of the way, through a caution for Enfinger’s blown tire and contact with the outside wall.

“I just went for it,” said Riggs, who entered The Chase as the top seed. “Went for it way too hard and went for when I shouldn’t have gone for it. I should have just settled for finishing second right there and had a shot at it later on.

“Just really disappointing. (My) Ford F-150 was really fast. I felt like we weren’t as good as the 11 all day. We were just too free. I had a really big run (with two laps left) or thought I was going to get a big run down the frontstretch. Never made it there. I got the wall instead.”

MORE: Riggs rues late-race wall scrape as Chase deficit grows

With Riggs fading on the final two laps, Honeycutt finished 1.358 seconds ahead of runner-up Christian Eckes. Brent Crews ran third, followed by Chase drivers Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Chandler Smith.

Taking the initial green flag from the fourth position, Honeycutt grabbed the lead from Nick Sanchez on the opening lap and won the first stage wire-to-wire.

In fact, Honeycutt didn’t surrender the top spot until Lap 48, when Riggs got to the stripe first on a restart after Connor Hall spun on the backstretch to cause the second caution.

Riggs’ lead was short-lived. On Lap 50, Honeycutt tapped the rear bumper of Riggs’ No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, with Riggs’ truck suffering a glancing blow against the outside wall. Honeycutt passed Riggs to the inside and retook the lead.

When Hall spun for the second time on Lap 54, bringing the second stage to an early end, Honeycutt held the top spot and completed the sweep of the first two stages. Honeycutt pitted for tires and fuel under caution for the stage break on Lap 61 and gave up the lead, as eight trucks remained on the track for a Lap 65 restart.

A multicar wreck on a Lap 66 restart slowed the field once again, with Honeycutt already having climbed to third in the running order. Four laps later, with rain falling in earnest, NASCAR brought the trucks to pit road and red-flagged the race with Enfinger leading and Rhodes running second.

WATCH: Honeycutt details Chase mindset

If Honeycutt had a problem-free race to that point, Riggs endured calamity on pit road, as he had done in The Chase opener at Bristol Motor Speedway. During his Lap 61 pit stop, Riggs had to back up into his stall after the jack dropped with the lug nuts on his left-front wheel not yet tight.

Riggs restarted 25th and gained six spots on the restart lap before the wreck and rain stopped the race.

Non-Chase drivers Nick Leitz, Tanner Gray, Jake Garcia and Corey LaJoie completed the top 10. Chase driver Gio Ruggiero was 13th. Tyler Ankrum finished 25th after a late flat tire, Ty Majeski 29th and Enfinger 31st.

Enfinger, who led throughout the red-flag period, suffered a pit road speeding penalty, a wreck and a two-lap penalty for intentionally causing a caution by stopping in Turn 3 after hitting the wall on Lap 123.

All told, Honeycutt scored 75 points, scoring every possible marker except for one point for posting the fastest lap, a distinction that went to Ankrum. Honeycutt has a 71-point lead over Smith, who is third in the standings.

The Craftsman Truck Series will return to action Friday, Oct. 9 for race No. 3 of The Chase at Charlotte Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, FOX, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Kaden Honeycutt as the winner.

Posted on by Zack Albert

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Ryan Blaney vs. Carson Hocevar fracas from one week ago at Bristol Motor Speedway had two main characters, but also a bit of a supporting cast from the NASCAR Cup Series garage.

Prime among those was Ty Gibbs, an invested third party whose spectating role turned into participation once he lobbed a near-full water bottle into the post-race fray. No penalties were issued from the pit-road squabble, but Gibbs was summoned to the NASCAR officials’ hauler for consultation Saturday morning at Kansas Speedway after that bottle struck a media member, knocking his cell phone from his grip.

“Yeah, I went to the principal’s this morning, so just had a chat,” Gibbs said, just before practice and qualifying for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) were scrapped by rain. “… Not ideal they want account of it, but completely understand. Definitely shouldn’t’ve have done that.”

The field for The Chase presented by Mobil 1 can potentially catch its breath at Kansas after last weekend’s fireworks, but the conflict that launched a thousand memes was still on the tip of several drivers’ tongues on the eve of the fourth of 10 postseason races. Gibbs was among them, with a lasting image of him gleefully watching Blaney confront Hocevar in the background from his pit-road parking spot. “I didn’t think I’d make internet headlines,” Gibbs said, “but I guess I did.”

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Kansas

Gibbs had raced Hocevar hard in the closing laps of Bristol’s annual night race, and contact between the two drivers allowed Joey Logano to scoot through for victory. When asked, Gibbs’ motivations behind the bottle throw were unclear. “I don’t know,” he said. “Just toss it in there.” In an effort to show there were no hard feelings, representatives from Frontstretch.com — the impacted media outlet — extended Gibbs an olive branch with a fresh water bottle, complete with a decorative bow.

From parking spots behind the Blaney-Hocevar flap, Ryan Preece and Josh Berry — a pair of kindred short-track spirits — were also more-than-curious onlookers. Both drivers motioned at Hocevar after the conflict had subsided, with Preece delivering animated comments in his direction.

Preece has had a modest history of run-ins with Hocevar — last season at Texas Motor Speedway, and a dramatic blow-up during a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2022 as Hocevar was rising through the NASCAR ranks. During his post-race remarks four years ago, Preece noted how he’d raced against Modified Tour legends who had set him straight in the early stages of his racing career. Saturday, he referenced that background, sharing a story about how a long-ago encounter with a NASCAR Hall of Famer had shaped his on-track code of conduct.

“Mike Stefanik, I nerfed him in 2009, which a nerf bar is basically the equivalent of dooring somebody in a late model,” Preece said, “and I just completely disrespected him and drove off to finish second. I think Mike finished third or fourth in that race, and I looked at Mike after, and I said — like a typical 19-year-old or 18-year-old kid — I said, ‘Hey, Mike, I’m sorry. You know, I just had to do what was right for my guys,’ and he looked at me and said — and this resonated with me — it was, “Well, what about my guys?’ I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way, and I choose to value them in certain ways. So for me — me personally, my values — I’m not going to completely disrespect another racer unless I’m disrespected first. That’s just the way I choose race. Everybody else can choose to do it different, and that’s fine. But I think everybody knows what my values are and how I choose to race.

“I haven’t had a problem on the race track with Carson since last year at Texas when he wrecked us there, and I felt like he had been earning respect from me with the way he was choosing to race me, but when you see things like in the past, and I’ll be honest with you, last week when I watched that incident, it wasn’t entirely on him, and I’ll call a spade a spade, but your reputation carries a lot of weight in other situations.”

That reputation has ruffled plenty of egos and fenders inside the Cup Series inner circle, but it has also endeared him to fans, who have celebrated his stir-the-pot philosophy. It’s a compelling divide, one that fellow drivers have said isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“No, because he’s different than all of us,” said defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson. “He acts different, talks different, dresses different. He’s just different. I think that’s refreshing for fans. He drives more aggressive and willing to do crazier things than the rest of us probably are. No, I mean, it’s not frustrating at all on that aspect. I’m not jealous of any exposure he’s getting from it because he’s doing a good job with it. He’s just different and people like different. You have to keep your eye on him when you’re on the race track, but as a fan, I can see why he’s likable in that aspect.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson has already defied conventional wisdom.

Three races into the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has come from seventh to start the postseason to the top of the standings.

That’s a 56-point swing from the start of the Chase, a move many observers thought unlikely.

RELATED: Kansas lineup | At-track photos

The only driver to score top-five finishes in all three Chase races so far, Larson claimed the series lead last Saturday with a second-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Though he’s only one point ahead of Denny Hamlin, the top seed entering the Chase, Larson says that one point matters.

“I would always rather be one point ahead than one point behind,” Larson said on Saturday morning at Kansas Speedway. “But even going back to after the win (in the second Chase race at World Wide Technology Raceway), I think we were nine points back, and I was like, ‘OK, we’re there… we have a shot.’

“Now that you’re leading, nothing really changes, other than you’d like to not fall back. But even if you do, you still have time to make up for it. We’ll just keep plugging away. I’ve been really happy with the speed and, especially, the execution in these first three.

“I think they’ve gone pretty flawless for our team. Now we have some tracks that we probably are even more confident at than the first three, outside of Bristol. But, yeah, it’s just tough. It’s a lot of racing, a lot of tough competitors, and just a tough, tough series.”