NASCAR Barometer: Dominant Kyle Larson Wins at Kansas

Sunday's AdventHealth 400 was all about Kyle Larson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver enjoyed a dominant day, sweeping the stages, leading the most laps, and winning from pole position. It was his second consecutive spring win at the track, but this time he did it in dominant fashion. The victory ties him with Christopher Bell on three each for the season as the race for the championship takes a one-week break for the All-Star Race weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway. As the series enters that break, Larson sits atop the points with a 35-point lead over teammate William Byron. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates are the only two drivers to have passed the 400-point mark so far, and have wrested the early-season advantage from Joe Gibbs Racing. At the other end of the playoff standings is Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who enters the All-Star Race weekend in the 16th and final playoff position, seven points ahead of Ryan Preece in 17th.

This weekend the prize is an All-Star win as the NASCAR Cup Series visits North Wilkesboro for the third time. Larson won the first All-Star event at the track in 2023 and Joey Logano took the spoils last year. The change in weekend format offers a brief respite for the competitors before tackling NASCAR's longest race a week later at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Some teams will welcome the chance to get things back on track or apply the changes they need to make themselves for competitive for the championship, while others will hope to keep their good form going. This week, it is all about the prestige, though. An All-Star win comes with a big check, a spot in future All-Star main events, and a good dose of success to take back to points racing a week later.

UPGRADE

Kyle Larson - Sunday was a day of superlatives for Kyle Larson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver started on pole, swept stage victories, led 221 of 267 laps, and won his third race of the season. The former champion joined Christopher Bell with three 2025 race wins and now boasts eight stage wins this season, too. That stage victory tally is a record through the first 12 races of a season. If that wasn't enough, Larson also joined Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin as the only active drivers to have led over 10,000 laps. Sunday's victory puts Larson atop the points as the schedule heads toward the All-Star Race weekend, a race he won at North Wilkesboro in 2023. Larson has two other All-Star Race wins on his resume, and he is likely to be the favorite to win again this weekend. Last year, he started 12th but worked his way forward through the race to finish fourth. After Sunday, he will likely be the favorite to win it again.

Christopher Bell - While no one could match Larson on Sunday, Bell was the closest. The three-time winner on the season started strongly with a third-place start that he used to push to top-five finishes in each of the first two stages. Bell and team made no mistakes throughout the race and consolidated that strength with a second-place race finish, too. It was Bell's sixth top-five finish of the season, which is second only to Larson at this point. The finish was also the fifth top-10 from the last six races for the No. 20 team, a streak that has Bell sitting third in points only behind Larson and William Byron. This week gives Bell a chance to flex his short-track muscle without the regular-season pressure. Despite his credentials, Bell's best North Wilkesboro finish in the two exhibition events was 12th in 2023. He started third in last year's race but fell to a finish of 17th. The No. 20 crew won the pit competition, though.

Ryan Blaney - While a 2025 victory is still lacking for Blaney, continuing to race as he did Sunday will put him in position sooner rather than later. Blaney converted his 10th-place start into top-five stage finishes in both opening segments. From there, he went on to race in the top five the remainder of the race, picking up a third-place finish for his fifth top-five finish of the season. Those five top-fives give him the most of any driver without a win so far this season, too. While a win this week at North Wilkesboro would not impact his championship effort, it could represent the final step toward that elusive 2025 win for Blaney and the team. Blaney won 2022 All-Star Race at Texas and finished sixth and fifth the two times it was held at North Wilkesboro. Taking some momentum from the exhibition weekend would be a good platform to get back at it in earnest the following week at Charlotte.

Josh Berry - Berry and the Wood Brothers team continue to show race-winning speed, proving their win earlier this season was not a fluke. Despite starting deep in the field Sunday, Berry worked his way forward in the order and was inside the top 10 to score stage points in the second segment. Once at the sharp end of the field, Berry didn't let go and drove his Ford home to a sixth-place finish. That was his third top-10 of the season and second top finish on a 1.5-mile oval. Race finishes haven't been as consistent as Berry's speed, and that is where the team will focus in the second half of the year to gear up for the playoffs. The All-Star Race this week could offer them a step that direction, too. Berry raced in the main event at North Wilkesboro in 2023 and finished third in the Open race last season. He is already locked into this year's main event via his Las Vegas victory.

Alex Bowman - Bowman's fifth-place finish at Kansas was his second top-five of the season and his second top-10 from the last three races. That cuts against the streak of three straight finishes outside of the top 25 that stretched from Martinsville through Bristol. Bowman is still lacking a 2025 victory that would earn him a playoff spot, but his points are enough to have him in contention heading into the All-Star Race. Even better, his two top-10 finishes from the last three races suggest his fortunes are turning around. That trend will be put to the test this week at North Wilkesboro. Bowman missed the main even at this track each of the times it was held. In 2023, Bowman missed out due to injury. Last season, despite starting on the front row for the Open qualifying race, Bowman finished sixth and didn't advance. Turning that streak around this week would be more great progress to put behind a push for a points win the following week at Charlotte.

DOWNGRADE

Denny Hamlin - Problems started relatively early at Kansas for Hamlin. The veteran driver struggled with a clutch issue throughout the race, which made any trip to pit road a losing proposition as he struggled to get the car moving and back up to speed after stopping. Despite the issues, Hamlin soldiered on and had respectable speed on track. The mechanical strain was too much to take, though. Just before 200 laps were completed, the ailing clutch stressed an axle, causing a failure and taking Hamlin out of the race. As if that alone wasn't bad enough, the 36th-place finish was the third in a row worse than 20th. A week's break to go All-Star racing may be coming at the perfect time for the No. 11 team to perform a quick reset. Hamlin is a former All-Star Race winner from 2015, and he finished second to Joey Logano in last year's event. A top finish this week could set the stage for a return to form when championship racing resumes.

Brad Keselowski - Keselowski's season continued its bumpy path Sunday at Kansas. Qualifying was a disappoint with Keselowski starting the race just 36th, but the former champion worked his way forward throughout the race and was inside the top 10 with less than 75 laps remaining. However, right on script, the No. 6 suffered a blown tire and Keselowski collided with the wall, exiting the race for a 37th-place finish. He has yet to finish in the top 10 this season and Sunday's result was his fifth finish outside of the top 30, too. Heading into the All-Star Race weekend, Keselowski is languishing 33rd in the standings with seemingly nothing going his way. This week may be good for the No. 6 team. Despite Sunday's trouble at Kansas, the car had speed and was making up ground in the race. The break from points racing at North Wilkesboro could help them put the final pieces together for a full race before attacking again at Charlotte.

William Byron - Sunday's race might have been an opportunity to grab another top-10 finish continue his run at the top of the championship standings, but an early flat tire set up a difficult afternoon for Byron. He started seventh and should have had the pace to run there for the afternoon, but the flat rear tire less than 20 laps from the first stage finish sent him limping to the pits as the race continued. With no yellow flag for the incident, Byron's trouble and unscheduled stop meant he fell off of the lead lap. In the end, that trouble was too much to overcome and Byron finished the race one lap down in 24th position with no stage points earned. The finish was just the third of the season worse than 20th for him, too. The focus this week will be on ensuring Sunday's trouble doesn't become a trend, but that could be difficult. Byron finished 20th and 19th in the two All-Star Races held at North Wilkesboro.

Kyle Busch - The difficult 2025 season for Busch continued at Kansas. The Richard Childress Racing veteran moved forward but stalled outside of the top 10 as the race wore on, blaming the current generation of car for being difficult in traffic. Stuck in that mid-pack traffic ultimately cost Busch any chance at a respectable finish when a four-wide battle in one of the many late restarts ended in contact and the No. 8 machine spinning into the grass. With little chance of recovery following that incident, Busch finished the day 21st and a lap down to the leaders. It was the third race in a row that the former champion failed to finish in the top 20. With the the All-Star Race ahead, Busch is just 18th in the standings, 14 points behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the final playoff position and needing to turn that trend around. His best North Wilkesboro All-Star showing was last season's 10th-place finish.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Corey Heim - Fans of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series are familiar with Heim and his abilities at Kansas Speedway, but Sunday's 13th-place finish in the Cup Series race will have introduced him to many more. It was his first series start of the season and fourth of his career, and the top-15 result came despite a 28th-place starting position, a day after he raced to a third-place finish with his truck team. The day wasn't completely clean as he was part of a multi-car pileup that took out Bubba Wallace, but damage to Heim was minimal and he salvaged that 13th-place finish despite the incident. In all, it was an impressive showing for the 22-year old who already has 12 career wins in the trucks, and it is fueling his drive to make the step up to Cup competition. He currently leads the Truck Series standings and is seeking his first championship in that series after finishing second last year.