KANSAS CITY, KS – In a wild battle to the finish, Kyle Larson outdueled Chase Briscoe and held off Austin Cindric to earn max points in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Larson has entered The Chase with immense speed. He finished fifth at Darlington Raceway, won at World Wide Technology Raceway and finished runner-up at Bristol Motor Speedway. On Sunday in Kansas, the driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet started second, led a race high of 235 laps and swept all stages for his second win of the season.

“Yeah, that was fun,” Larson said. “That was such a good day. Max points. I was going to be happy with second with how the race went, but get the lead, that’s a big deal for the points.”

In the final 50 laps, Larson and Briscoe swapped the lead and mimicked each other while battling for the top spot. It appeared that Briscoe had a better long run car, but towards the end of the race, he smacked the wall and was taken out of contention for the win. Larson then held the hard charging Cindric at bay for the victory.

“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,” Larson said. “I don’t know. I think it’s just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.

“I think a lot of the same, like, 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.”

Sunday’s second-place finish was Cindric best effort so far in the season. He was fast all afternoon long, finishing third in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2. The driver of the Team Penske No. 2 Discount Tire Ford was coming for Larson with full steam, but in the end, he ran out of time and had to settle for his third top-five of 2026.

“Obviously it was a hell of a race for the win there, and I was just loading them up, and traffic definitely played a huge factor,” Cindric said. “I thought our Discount Tire Ford was versatile than most, and I thought Brian and those guys did a great adjustment trying to get us good on the long run there.

“Overall happy with the performance and the speed. I mean, it’s one of the best race cars I’ve driven. It was a ton of fun today. Our guys came really well prepared.”

Denny Hamlin finished third. Chase Briscoe held on to finish fourth, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece.

The caution came out on five occasions for 26 laps. Only two cautions were for issues on the track.

On Lap 115, Noah Gragson’s car went up in a huge plume of smoke.

The only crash of the day occurred on a Lap 123 restarts, when Chase contender, Carson Hocevar crashed, collecting five other drivers, including Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Erik Jones, Josh Berry and Zane Smith.

Following Kansas, The Chase standings now look like this: Larson (leader), Hamlin (-26), Bell (-50), Joey Logano (-67). All other drivers are more than a race behind in points.

The fourth race of The Chase will take place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, Oct. 4. The South Point 400 will broadcast live on the USA Network at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images