Larson prevails as NASCAR pandemonium breaks out at WWTR

Kyle Larson finally broke through Sunday to end a 51-race winless drought in the NASCAR Cup Series as pandemonium broke out at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Larson took the lead for good with 13 laps to go in regulation but then had to survive three restarts before taking the checkered flag for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team. In the end, he held off teammate Alex Bowman and fellow Chase driver Joey Logano. The day’s two dominant drivers, Larson and Logano, combined to lead 176 of 347 laps.

It was the first victory for Hendrick Motorsports at St. Louis. Logano, who led the most laps, was looking for the third win in five races for Team Penske.

“I had a good feeling, but you never know,” Larson said of beating Logano. “I felt like this place is so weird, obviously, with the brake rotor failures, strategy, all that. So, I’m just proud of my team for working so hard and being so patient through all the tough times and the winless streak, and all that.

“Thanks to the fans, my fans, for also being patient with us and letting us get it figured out. How about Hendrick Motorsports? How about Alex Bowman? You can’t ask for a better teammate than him, giving me the pushes I needed to get clear. I really want to dedicate this win to him and his dog, Finn, who just passed away a couple of days ago. William Byron, top five, too. Ross Chastain, fifth. A lot of Chevys up there, so a good day for Chevrolet.”

The winning pass came on a lap 228 restart (13 laps to go) when Larson was deemed the leader over Logano as the caution flew on the same lap. On the three subsequent restarts, Larson chose the outside and beat Logano twice and then Bowman on the last one.

William Byron finished fourth, and Ross Chastain completed the top five. Austin Dillon finished sixth, Connor Zilisch finished seventh, Carson Hocevar finished eighth, and Denny Hamlin finished ninth. Austin Cindric rounded out the top 10.

Oh, and there were also two red flags in the final 13 laps for cleanup. It was the theme of the afternoon, as there were a track-record 18 caution flags (the previous was 11), and nearly every Chase driver experienced some sort of issue either on pit road or on the racetrack.

Logano started from the pole and won the first stage. There were four cautions in that stage.

Larson won the second stage. By that point in the afternoon, Tyler Reddick had bounced off the wall while trying to squeeze outside Daniel Suarez, and later, Suarez was involved in a separate crash.

In the final stage, Ryan Blaney exited after crashing due to brake issues, as did Chase Elliott, who collected Chase Briscoe in his incident. Before that, however, Briscoe was collected when Bubba Wallace spun underneath him, which also collected Byron.

Hocevar had to rebound from a second pit stop in the final stage for the team to check if the wheels were tight. Hamlin’s team also had a slow stop that set him back in the field, but a rash of cautions worked in his favor to salvage the day.

Inside the final 20 laps, there was a crash on the backstretch that collected Wallace, Josh Berry, Christopher Bell, and Reddick. On the next restart, Gibbs and Suarez were involved in a crash. The last caution of the day came for Chris Buescher, who hit the wall in Turn 1 from an apparent brake issue.

It appeared to be a common problem among Ford drivers with the brake issues, with Blaney, Buescher, Zane Smith, and Noah Gragson all ending up wrecked.

The victory moved Larson to second in the championship point standings behind Hamlin.

“Honestly, no,” said Larson about doubting himself since his last win in May 2025. “It’d be easy to think that, but no, I haven’t. I haven’t doubted myself. I haven’t doubted our team. Maybe myself at times, but never my team. So, thank you to everybody on the [No.] 5 team, everybody at HendrickCars.com, Chevrolet, Valvoline, the engine shop, and the pit crews for busting their butts, too. Cliff Daniels for leading our team to great finishes.

“No better time to have a great day than today. So, I’m proud of it and feel like we got our swagger back a little bit.”

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