Kyle Larson scored his best finish of the season on Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway. He posted his first runner-up of the year after losing the lead to Tyler Reddick on the final lap of overtime.
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The defending champion took the lead from Denny Hamlin at the start of overtime by diving to the bottom of the track and putting the field three-wide. He cleared and appeared to be headed to his first win since last season's spring race at Kansas. However, Reddick chased him down and took the lead in Turns 3 and 4.
"It was a good execution on the restart there at the end," Larson said after the race. "I got to the lead and I thought I could cruise right there to the checkered flag, but my balance on two tires was just super, super tight.
I didn't get through (Turns) 3 and 4 fast enough, and then the No. 45 had such a big run on me from behind. I thought I could go to the top to get some load into my front tires, but it still didn't turn there. That was a bummer, but just overall happy with the day we had."
No quit in this team. pic.twitter.com/LKB7xuXIGz
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) April 19, 2026
Larson is a two-time Cup Series champion, but he has not been in contention as regularly this season. He entered Kansas weekend with five top-10 finishes and a pair of top-fives. He finished third at both Phoenix Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
The Chevrolet camp changed the Camaro body before the season, which created the expectation that the affiliated drivers would possibly struggle to adapt early in the season as Ford drivers did when they switched to the Dark Horse Mustang in 2024.
Larson entered Kansas with 421 laps led this season, which is a solid number, but he led nearly that much in last season's spring race at Bristol (411) before winning. He added another 78 laps led on Sunday, which made him the first driver to lead more than 5,000 laps in the Next Gen era.
