Larson Leaps Byron in Points After Kansas Win

Kyle Larson celebrates his AdventHealth 400 win Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway. (Photo: AP)

AdventHealth 400:

Kyle Larson spanked the field Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway in the AdventHealth 400. Larson led 221 of 267 laps en route to his third win of the 2025 campaign and overtook William Byron for the Cup Series points lead. While it's likely been a given most of the season, this win to me locks Larson in as the Cup Series championship favorite. He has already amassed 23 playoff points. He will get more with stage and race wins throughout the season, and if he holds onto the top spot in points gets another 15 on top of that. It is likely that Larson enters the playoffs with upwards (or even north of) 50 playoff points. That would all but set Larson up to cruise to the Championship 4 in Phoenix come November. Now, of course, he would have to likely win at Phoenix, but he has shown he is capable of that in the past and if they have that much of a cushion to prepare for the title race he should be considered an unstoppable force.

Sunday's race was fine. I didn't hate it; Kansas is still one of the better tracks on the schedule (although the fan attendance may be a little concerning); and we had a little bit of everything for a solid race. The only detriment Sunday was Larson's dominance. And that's not as much as a detriment to the whole sport or anything; really it's just a detriment to the hype around Kansas. After having what I would consider a really solid run of great races, Sunday just wasn't it. The 5 team was lights out impressive, their biggest competitors throughout the day had trouble, and Larson himself was masterful behind the wheel managing the race. Any NASCAR fan knows that if you give Larson a top-5 (hell maybe a top-10) car and clean air, he is going to be hard to beat. When he looked defeated or at least challenged on Sunday, those competitors then had stuff go wrong that took them out: Elliott had a crap pit stop, Hamlin had clutch/transmission issues, and Keselowski blew a tire. Larson and the 5 team executed a perfect day. While it sucked we didn't have the barn burners of recent Kansas races, Sunday was not a reason to hit the panic button. And yes, I believe this car still isn't the best, I believe Goodyear could do better, and I believe Sunday wasn't the best of a NASCAR Cup Series race, it certainly wasn't the worst. Deep breaths; let's enjoy the All-Star race and hope the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend puts on a good show for all to see.

Next up we head back to North Wilkesboro with Truck Series action the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race. The action for the weekend kicks off Friday with All-Star Open Qualifying starting at 6 p.m. on FS1 followed by All-Star race qualifying. Saturday the Craftsmen Truck Series takes to the track with the Window World 250 on FS1. The Cup Series follows the Truck Series with Heat races at 5 p.m. om FS2. The Cup Series All-Star races closes up the weekend on Sunday with the Open race going green at 5:30 on FS1 followed by the All-Star race at 8 p.m.

North Wilkesboro Picks:

Cup = Chase Elliott

All-Star Transfer = Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace

Fan Vote = Noah Gragson

Xfinity = OFF

Trucks = Kyle Busch