Kyle Larson put up a valiant effort to win the Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in his No. 5 Nascar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but he could not hold off the No. 45 Toyota TRD Camry of Kurt Busch for the win. In fact, Larson’s second-place No. 5 Chevy was the only Bow Tie machine to finish in the top five amidst a sea of Toyotas.
Larson’s No. 5 Chevy and Busch’s No. 45 Toyota did battle up front for most of the second half of the race. They were evenly matched as they passed for the lead back and forth. At one point, Larson’s No. 5 Camaro got loose on the back stretch and went sideways, but Larson gathered it back up without losing the second position. However, with 23 laps left in the race, Busch’s No. 45 Camry got around Larson’s No. 5 Camaro, and never looked back.
Larson said his No. 5 Chevy got progressively tighter on long green flag runs. He did explain that while he and Busch raced hard, they never made contact. “I wasn’t upset with him or anything,” Larson said after the race. “It was just hard racing there for the win. I knew when he got to my inside, I was struggling in traffic a little bit and he was able to get by and from there, I just had to hold onto second.”
Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Camry finished third behind Larson, while polesitter Christopher Bell in the No. 20 Camry finished fourth, followed by Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Camry. Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Camry finished out the Toyota-dominated top six.
Tyler Reddick’s No. 8 Camaro started in second place and set a blistering pace in the early laps of the race, but a tire blew out on Lap 116 and caused him to brush the wall. He was forced to pit for repairs under green and ultimately finished 30th, three laps down. A similar incident struck the No. 24 Camaro of William Byron, who cut a tire while leading, and again to Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Camaro, who spun out after blowing a tire late in the race.
Finish | Start | Car Number | Driver | Team | Laps Run | Laps Led | Car |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | 45 | Kurt Busch | Jordan Brand Toyota | 267 | 116 | Toyota TRD Camry |
2 | 3 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 267 | 29 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
3 | 6 | 18 | Kyle Busch | M&M's Crunchy Cookie Toyota | 267 | 18 | Toyota TRD Camry |
4 | 18 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota | 267 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
5 | 1 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Rheem Toyota | 267 | 37 | Toyota TRD Camry |
6 | 9 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota | 267 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
7 | 11 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Advent Health Chevrolet | 267 | 4 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
8 | 36 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Dillons/Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet | 267 | 3 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
9 | 8 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 267 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
10 | 24 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | McDonald's Toyota | 267 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
11 | 4 | 2 | Austin Cindric # | Menards/Monster Ford | 267 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
12 | 10 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Wabash Ford | 267 | 1 | Ford Mustang |
13 | 21 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet | 267 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
14 | 30 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | King's Hawaiian Ford | 267 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
15 | 23 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Busch Light #ForTheFarmers Ford | 267 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
16 | 13 | 24 | William Byron | RaptorTough.com Chevrolet | 267 | 25 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
17 | 34 | 22 | Joey Logano | Verizon 5G Ford | 267 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
18 | 28 | 16 | Noah Gragson(i) | Chevrolet Chevrolet | 267 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
19 | 20 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Garner Trucking Inc. Chevrolet | 267 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
20 | 17 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Chevyliners.com Chevrolet | 267 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
21 | 26 | 21 | Harrison Burton # | DEX Imaging Ford | 267 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
22 | 16 | 41 | Cole Custer | HaasTooling.com/PAG Ford | 267 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
23 | 25 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Love's Travel Stops Ford | 267 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
24 | 12 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford | 266 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
25 | 31 | 38 | Todd Gilliland # | First Phase Credit Card Ford | 266 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
26 | 7 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Ford | 266 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
27 | 35 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Castrol GTX Full Synthetic Ford | 265 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
28 | 33 | 77 | Josh Bilicki(i) | UACC/Support Ukraine Chevrolet | 265 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
29 | 14 | 9 | Chase Elliott | UniFirst Chevrolet | 264 | 10 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
30 | 2 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | BetMGM Chevrolet | 263 | 24 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
31 | 27 | 15 | JJ Yeley(i) | Diagnostic Imaging Centers Ford | 263 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
32 | 22 | 43 | Erik Jones | FOCUSfactor Chevrolet | 261 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
33 | 19 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | CommScope Chevrolet | 256 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
34 | 29 | 51 | Cody Ware | Nurtec ODT Ford | 255 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
35 | 15 | 31 | Justin Haley | LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet | 64 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
36 | 32 | 78 | BJ McLeod | General Formulations Ford | 32 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
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