Chase Elliott did his best to chase down Kyle Larson after a final restart didn’t go his way, but he wasn’t able to get himself up to the bumper of the No. 5.
Once again, the fans saw Larson drive away with another victory, his ninth of the 2021 season.
“I want to dedicate this win to Rick and Linda (Hendrick),” Larson said in victory lane. “I didn’t get to ever meet Ricky Hendrick or the other men and women who lost their lives that day. But, I felt the importance of that race, no doubt. I know they were all looking down on me on those restarts and stuff.”
Larson wasn’t necessarily the fastest car on the track on Sunday. He said that he felt like he had a third-place car or so.
Larson saw teammate William Byron be forced to give up the race lead late in the day after his crew left some lugnuts loose on a tire and had to come down pit road a second time.
He then got by Elliott on a chaotic restart.
“It’s cool to get another win,” Larson said. “I don’t really know how that happened. The HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was really fast. I thought we were like a third-place car, maybe. William (Byron) was really good so you hate to see the unfortunate luck he had. Glad we could capitalize and get a win, and maybe we can go to Martinsville and get a clock.”
Elliott and Denny Hamlin will leave the track with more than a 30-point cushion on the cutoff for the championship. Assuming both drivers have no big issues, they will look to advance to the Championship 4.
The other five playoff drivers will fight for the series’ final spot.
NASCAR’s final race before the championship will take place on Sunday, October 31 at 1:00 p.m. CT at Martinsville. It will be televised on NBC.
NASCAR Cup Series Results
Kansas Speedway
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
| 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid | |||||
| With 1 race in Rd. of 8 – Next Sunday @ Martinsville 1pm CT NBC |
|||||
| Position | Driver | Wins | Points | Cutoff | |
| 1 | Kyle Larson | 9 | WIN | ADV | |
| 2 | Chase Elliott | 2 | 4106 | +34 | |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 2 | 4104 | +32 | |
| 4 | Kyle Busch | 2 | 4073 | +1 | |
| Playoff Cutoff | |||||
| 5 | Ryan Blaney | 3 | 4072 | -1 | |
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | 4 | 4070 | -3 | |
| 7 | Brad Keselowski | 1 | 4067 | -6 | |
| 8 | Joey Logano | 4 | 4047 | -26 | |
