After dominating 235 laps at Kansas, the No. 5 team has unlocked elite speed, propelling the defending champion to a commanding points lead and clear favorite status
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson is officially the hottest driver in NASCAR.
On Sunday at Kansas Speedway, Larson dominated the Hollywood Casino 400 in a way we haven’t seen from the No. 5 team all season. He started second, led 235 of the 267 laps — nearly 88 percent of the race — and swept both Stage 1 and Stage 2. When it was over he had collected the maximum 76 points and walked away with his second win of The Chase.
The only time he didn’t lead late was when Chase Briscoe briefly got past him. Larson took the lead back with seven laps to go and drove off to the victory. It was his fourth career Cup win at Kansas and the latest statement that this team has found something.
For most of the year the story around Larson was the same.
Larson has led the most laps of anyone in the series this season, 1,118, to be exact — but the No. 5 group couldn’t close. The race-winning speed simply wasn’t there. Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports spent months trying to adapt to the new body package, and it showed. Larson looked like a driver waiting on his team to catch up.
That wait appears to be over.
The spark started at St. Louis with a win. It continued with a second-place finish at Bristol. On Sunday at Kansas it turned into a full-blown statement. Larson didn’t just beat the field. He beat a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Chase Briscoe head-to-head at a track that is supposed to be JGR’s kind of place.
The points picture reflects the surge. Larson has now extended his lead at the top of The Chase standings to 26 points. Two races ago he was climbing out of the middle of the pack. Now he’s the clear leader and the driver everyone else has to chase (pun intended).
This is what the defending champion is supposed to look like.
Larson already knows how to win a title. He did it last year even through stretches where the wins were hard to find. The difference now is that the speed is finally matching the talent. When Larson has a car that can win, he is as dangerous as anyone in the sport. Over the last three weeks the car has been good enough, and the results have followed.
Becoming a three-time champion is suddenly a very real possibility again.
The No. 5 team has gone from searching for answers to delivering the kind of performance that makes the rest of the garage take notice. They can win on short tracks, they can win on intermediates, and they just reminded everyone they can win from the front or from behind.
The 51-race winless drought is a distant memory. The speed is real. And Kyle Larson is making it clear that if you’re going to beat him for this championship, you’re going to have to go through the best version of the No. 5 team we’ve seen all year.
That version just showed up at Kansas and left almost nothing for anyone else.
