Larson Continues Dominance with Kansas Victory

Kyle Larson won the Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his ninth victory of the season and his third in a row.

Larson continued his dominance on the Cup Series field on Sunday, and led a race-high 130 laps after starting from the pole.

Larson had to hold off his teammates over the final stage, with Chase Elliott and William Byron threatening for the lead throughout the last half of the race.

Larson said he thought Byron and Elliott had faster cars, but that he was able to take advantage of close racing on the final restart to get to a lead no one was able to overcome.

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“Had a couple good restarts there and it kind of worked out for me,” Larson said.  “[Kevin Harvick] got to [Elliott’s] inside at the flag stand and kind of choked that lane up and got me clear to the lead.”

The victory comes on the 17th anniversary of a plane crash that took the lives of 10 Hendrick Motorsports team members and family members, including Rick Hendrick’s son.

Larson said it’s special to get a victory on the anniversary of the accident in a paint scheme reminiscent of Ricky Hendrick.

“I want to dedicate this win to Rick and Linda [Hendrick],” Larson said.  “I didn’t ever get to meet Ricky or any of the other men and women who lost their lives that day, but I felt the importance of this race.”

Elliott had a fast car in the closing laps, and began to cut into Larson’s lead until he made contact with the wall.

Elliott had to settle for second, and said the damage to his car slowed him down.

“I didn’t really have a choice; once I hit it, it hurt it pretty bad,” Elliott said.  “Feel like we had something for Kyle there, just got the wall there off of two.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Larson

2. Chase Elliott

3. Kevin Harvick

4. Kurt Busch

5. Denny Hamlin

6. William Byron

7. Martin Truex Jr.

8. Christopher Bell

9. Joey Logano

10. Austin Dillon

11. Alex Bowman

12. Chris Buescher

13. Ross Chastain

14. Bubba Wallace

15. Daniel Suarez

16. Michael McDowell

17. Brad Keselowski

18. Cole Custer

19. Chase Briscoe

20. Parker Kligerman

21. Ryan Preece

22. Tyler Reddick

23. Matt DiBenedetto

24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

25. Corey LaJoie

26. Aric Almirola

27. Ryan Newman

28. Kyle Busch

29. Erik Jones

30. BJ McLeod

31. Cody Ware

32. Joey Gase

33. Josh Bilicki

34. David Starr

35. Quin Houff

36. Ryan Ellis

37. Ryan Blaney

38. Anthony Alfredo

39. Justin Haley

40. Chad Finchum

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