Larson looks to defend title at Kansas Speedway

Through eight Cup Series races, five different drivers have been the first to the checkers and positioned their teams nicely at the top of the standings.

Reigning series champion Kyle Larson hopes it will his turn to join that list Sunday during the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.

In its effort to crown a champion by creating more competition in every race instead of a Game 7 scenario for just four drivers, NASCAR scrapped its system in the offseason and revisited the “Chase” format reminiscent of 2004’s Chase for the Nextel Cup that had 10 drivers competing in a 10-race playoff.

Some variations made their way into the new 16-race postseason, but the most significant is the 55-point reward to each race winner -- a 15-point bump from 2025.

Though five drivers have won a race so far, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick has been the only one victorious more than once. He owns four victories to give him a 62-point advantage over second-place Ryan Blaney.

Judging by Saturday’s qualifying runs, Reddick seems eager to collect his fifth win Sunday. 

On a cool day when some drivers were able to hold the throttle wide open around the 1.5-mile track, Reddick blistered his way around in his No. 45 Toyota in 29.142 seconds to edge Denny Hamlin, who turned it in 29.161. 

It marked Reddick’s 14th career pole, third of 2026 and second at Kansas Speedway. Ty Gibbs (last week’s winner), Larson and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five qualifiers. 

Winning mattered a lot in 2025. First, it was “win and you’re in” the playoffs, then it was tacking on postseason points with another. Finally, winning in the final three stages advanced a driver to the next one.

However, winning matters even more now and can create a gap from the pack from Race 1 to Race 36, even after a lone 26-race reset that favors the points leader.

Win a lot and a hot shoe can be in Reddick’s perch, sitting pretty in the catbird seat.

Hamlin, Gibbs and Chase Elliott occupy third through fifth. That leaves Larson in sixth place as the first non-winner this season.

Hamlin arrives at Kansas as one of the betting favorites, but Larson appears on a quest because the Hendrick Motorsports pilot has yet to end a race as the top dog on a Cup Series Sunday.

It’s been a minute since grabbing the checkers.

Larson finds himself in a unique position Sunday: It marks the final time this regular season where he serves as a defending race winner. The Elk Grove, Calif., product also won at Homestead-Miami (this season’s finale) in March of 2025 and Bristol last spring.

“I feel like we’re really close, like we could have won four to five races in this time span of not winning, maybe even more,” said Larson, who has 260 points and is second to Blaney with 72 stage points. “It’s kind of wild to think it’s been almost a year since I’ve won because I don’t feel like we’re that bad. ... It just hasn’t happened.”

Larson, 33, said last November’s championship in the Arizona desert made his current 32-race winless streak seem like no big deal, saying, “Ultimately, celebrating the championship in Phoenix felt like a win in a lot of ways.”

The two-time series champ does not lead single-digit laps at Kansas. Larson runs the point in chunks and is usually the guy being chased at the leaderboard’s perch.

Larson led 221 laps a year ago in his last victory and is a three-time winner at the 1.5-mile track in the past nine races.

Since 2021, his No. 5 Chevy has paced 761 circuits there, more than double that of Hamlin (337), the next highest leader.

But just leading the final one Sunday will be fulfilling.

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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 10:49 PM.