MADISON, Ill. — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson ended a 51-race winless streak Sunday in his No. 5 Chevrolet, edging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in overtime of a crash-filled postseason clash that shook up the standings for the 16-man Chase.
Larson, who added last season’s Cup Series title to his 2021 breakthrough, found his way to victory lane for the first time since May 2025 at Kansas Speedway after defending the lead on three restarts in the final two laps of regulation and seven laps of overtime at World Wide Technology Raceway — the only regular stop for the Cup Series where Hendrick hadn’t won.
“It takes a lot more than just having the fastest car to win a Cup Series race,” said Larson, acknowledging pole-sitter Joey Logano had the best ride Sunday with the Team Penske No. 22 Ford. “You still have to execute a day from start to finish with good pit stops, good restarts, good strategy, and we had that today.”
The second race in NASCAR’s new postseason Chase format gave significant boosts to the title hopes for Larson and Logano, a three-time Cup Series champion who finished third and added 19 stage points.
“When you have an opportunity like that and you have a car like that, you need to win,” said Logano, who won led a race-high 96 laps, 16 more than Larson.
What was supposed to be a 240-lap race in suburban St. Louis — WWTR is just over the Mississippi River from that city — featured a season-high and track-record 18 cautions. It was marked by dramatic brake failures and several spinouts without any contact between cars.
After several Chase contenders were involved in late crashes, the race was red-flagged with 11 laps to go, just after Larson swiped the lead from Logano, and again with two left in regulation. Larson benefited from his crew’s decision on the 202nd lap to put four tires on while Logano took two to maintain track position.
Hendrick’s William Byron, who was last in the 16-driver Chase standings, finished fourth and was followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who is not in the Chase.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, last year’s winner at this track, placed ninth to maintain his points lead atop the Chase standings. Larson racked up 73 points in the race to jump from seventh to second in the standings, nine behind Hamlin.
JGR’s Christopher Bell, the winner of last week’s Southern 500 at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway, is another nine points back in third place.
“I think we are so fortunate,” said Hamlin, who was the only Toyota driver in a top 10 that included eight Chevrolets. “We were strong last week, and this week we were not strong, and still we maintained the lead.”
A series of crashes in the final stage had significant Chase implications.
On the 141st lap, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace dove under JGR driver Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota going into the first turn, creating four-wide traffic on the track’s tighter series of turns. Briscoe had no room to move up the track, and Wallace spun around after he was forced onto the curb. Briscoe also went sideways, and Byron slammed into Wallace’s spinning No. 23 Toyota.
The three — each of them in the 16-driver Chase field — dropped into positions 29 through 31 on the restart, and the impacts could have reached even further. Hamlin, Penske’s Ryan Blaney, and JGR’s Ty Gibbs were also racing in the same pack, and Hendrick’s Chase Elliott was able to squeeze under Wallace as he whirled around entering the back stretch.
On the 213th lap, Elliott had an apparent brake problem and collected Briscoe as both crashed into the wall in the first turn. Both were knocked out of the race.
“I stepped on the brakes and, yeah, exploded a rotor, and that was that was about it, so I was kind of hanging on,” Elliott said “Really unfortunate. Thought we were, yeah, having a really solid day, honestly. I was kind of right there around the top five.”
Contenders who escaped danger earlier got caught up in another collision on the 222nd lap. Wallace and Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry made contact in the first turn, and 23XI’s Tyler Reddick slammed into Berry as Bell got bumped into the wall.
On the ensuing restart, Gibbs and fellow Chase driver Daniel Suarez of Spire Motorsports sustained damage in a wreck on the back stretch that also involved AJ Allmendinger.
Blaney, who was third in the Chase entering the race, had a catastrophic brake failure at the finish line on the 155th lap while he was running in sixth place.
Blaney’s brakes exploded on the front stretch, and he rode his No. 12 Ford into the wall heading into the first turn.
Blaney finished 35th but earned 14 points from ending each of the first two stages in fourth place.
“It’s a shame,” Blaney said. “I thought we did a great job today running up towards the front and doing really good in the stages and was looking forward to seeing how that last run played out.”
RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, who was 11th in the standings, experienced brake failure on thee 237th lap.
The third race of the Chase is next Saturday night on the half-mile track at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway. Gibbs won the regular-season race there in overtime, edging Blaney (who led a race-high 190 laps) by 0.055 second. Bell won last year’s September race at the track.