Kyle Larson is about to dive headfirst into the busiest two weeks of his life, juggling the insanity of NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 and the majesty of the Indianapolis 500 like some kind of American motorsport Cirque du Soleil act. But before launching into that, he decided to drop a sledgehammer on the field in Kansas — and frankly, the only person who had a prayer of beating Kyle Larson… was Kyle Larson.
To say Larson was the class of the field all weekend is like saying fans in the infield at Talladega only have a few drinks on race day. The man didn’t just dominate — he obliterated. This wasn’t a race; it was an exhibition of horsepower and humiliation.
For a brief, shining moment, it looked like Chase Elliott might offer some resistance, slicing in during Stage 2 like a polite Southern gentleman ready to duel. But then Christopher Bell, playing the role of that one guy who shows up late and ruins a perfectly good fistfight, tangled with Elliott long enough for Larson to moonwalk away with the lead.
And then — gasp — Brad Keselowski actually passed Larson under green. For a heartbeat, we had a race. Then Brad’s Ford detonated a right-rear tire like it was auditioning for a Michael Bay film, slammed into the wall, and exited stage left with a whimper. Welcome back, Brad. We hardly knew ye.
Larson, meanwhile, had to handle not one, not two, but three restarts in the final hundred laps — which in NASCAR terms is roughly three days and 47 commercials. Each one was a mini soap opera.
In the end he even broke Jimmie Johnson’s Kansas record for most laps (197 in 2011) led in a single race — 211 of them, to be precise. That’s not domination. That’s a hostage situation.
But it wasn’t without drama. Late in Stage 2, Elliott found another gear and closed the gap like he was trying to board a moving train. Thanks to a freshly relocated pit-out line — now 70 feet farther from the first pit stall in NASCAR’s quest to make pit roads less like Russian roulette — Elliott nabbed the lead off pit road.
Larson began to struggle in traffic. Elliott checked out. Brad surged to second. Then Brad exploded.
Elliott’s shot at glory ended with a slow pit stop that dropped him to 12th, Bell leapfrogged Larson in the pits, and Denny Hamlin’s clutch finally gave up the ghost, sending his car to the garage like a grumpy toddler quitting a board game after running in the top five.
The next restart was carnage. Ty Dillon got loose and punted Cody Ware into Daniel Suárez like a game of demolition bowling. Larson had just reclaimed the lead from Joey Logano when the yellow flew again.
Then came a glorious mess: Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Josh Berry, and Noah Gragson went four-wide — a maneuver that works about as well as four men trying to enter a Porta Potty simultaneously. Berry got bumped, tagged Gragson, and Busch — poor, miserable Busch — went spinning through the grass like a half-drunk wedding guest on a slip-n-slide.
One more restart, one more wreck. Corey Heim got loose and collected Justin Haley, Bubba Wallace, and Michael McDowell in another four-wide disaster. Haley then reversed his car backwards down the backstretch to pit road, because of course he did. It’s Kansas. Physics is optional.
The final restart came with 49 laps to go. Larson, sick of the nonsense, passed Bell and set sail. He even made it interesting by coasting a bit on the final lap, crossing the line just .712 seconds ahead of Bell — the fourth time the two have finished 1-2. Larson’s now up 3-1 in that duel, because of course he is.
“I didn’t feel like we were very good today,” Bell lamented. “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 is a testament to how good this team is.”
Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five. And if you’re wondering who else survived: Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, and John Hunter Nemechek hung around long enough to claim top-10 finishes.
It’s Larson’s third Kansas win — his last being that photo finish against Buescher, the closest in NASCAR history. This one wasn’t close. This one was Larson saying, “Let me remind you who I am before I hop into an IndyCar and see if I can conquer that world too.”
He also leaves with the Cup series points lead after getting the maximum amount of points, topped off by the fastest lap of the day.
“It’s really cool to head to Indy as the point leader two years in a row in the Cup Series,” Larson reminded us. “It’s really tough to do, and it’s really cool for our team and our sport that the Cup Series point leader gets to run the Indianapolis 500. It’s awesome, and thanks again to these guys right here. I won’t get to celebrate with them tonight, but we will do a little celebrating here before we have to leave the track.”
Next up, it’s the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro — a short track with a long memory. But Larson? He’ll be halfway across the country much of the weekend, turning left at 230 mph, chasing bricks and history in the Indy 500. And after what we saw Sunday?
Bet against him at your own risk.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.