Runner-up Larson leaves Bristol with Cup Series points lead

With his chance to win moot, Kyle Larson spent the final laps of Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race chasing down Carson Hocevar for second. He threw his car to the outside of Hocevar with one last-ditch run in the final corners and drag raced the 23-year-old to the start-finish line.

In the end, Larson took the spot by inches. And in doing so, he established himself as the driver to beat three races into the Chase.

That one spot proved to be the difference between Larson and eighth-place finisher Denny Hamlin at night’s end, giving Larson a one-point advantage and the Cup Series points lead for the first time since he prevailed in the 2025 championship race.

For a brief moment, Larson had ambitions of achieving more on Saturday night. He hadn’t had the car to beat for most of the evening, but the Californian sat third when frontrunners Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar began colliding in the final laps.

Larson quickly closed up on the pair, but wound up trapped behind Hocevar in the high lane while eventual winner Joey Logano snuck by on the bottom.

“It got messy in front of us,” Larson admitted. “I was hopeful to get clear to the lead. Joey did a good job and things opened up for him on the bottom.

“We were at a tire deficit there and I felt like I was just vulnerable if I ran the bottom too long. I was just trying to move up, get rolling and hope they got into a mess there, which they did. It was a good night for us.”

After starting on pole courtesy of his win at World Wide Technology Raceway and a qualifying rainout, Larson led twice for a combined 45 laps. But changing tires strategies saw him faded into the pack with low tire wear and difficulty overtaking making it a challenge to march forward.

It wasn’t until a mid-stage caution opened the door for Larson to stay out as most pitted that the defending Cup champ finally rejoined the fight for the win.

“The first stage we had the track position and all that,” Larson said. “The rest of the race, we had to work our way forward and just settled into ninth or 10th there.

“That’s about where we were. But our team fought really hard, made a good pit call to stay out and then we had a lot of short runs there. I was happy to come away with a second there at the end. That was better than where I thought we could finish.”

After entering the Chase quietly amid a winless season, Larson has quickly boosted his championship odds with a win and three strong runs. But with seven long weeks left in the Chase and his Toyota rivals poised to be strong contenders in the upcoming intermediate races, Larson knows it’s too early to get complacent.

“It’s good, but there’s still so much racing left,” Larson said when asked about his Chase position. “I’ve just gotta keep having good, consistent days.

“That’s three top-fives to open the Chase. … We’re going to some good tracks for us, but also some good tracks for the Toyotas with Kansas, Vegas, Charlotte. It could easily change a lot here in the coming weeks.

“We’ve just gotta be ready for anything and keep plugging away.”