Kyle Larson outduels Chase Briscoe to win NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas

The box score will tell you that Kyle Larson dominated Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, which isn't untrue. 

But the two-time Cup Series champion certainly had to fight to win the Hollywood Casino 400, which he did by outdueling Chase Briscoe in a thrilling late-race battle. 

Larson pulled away from Briscoe after the final round of green-flag pit stops, but Briscoe drove right back to the bumper of the points leader and took the lead, appearing to drive away. 

However, Briscoe lost the handle on his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, which allowed Larson to get back to him and eventually pass him for the race lead. 

Briscoe hit the wall multiple times in the closing laps as he desperately tried to get back to Larson, who coasted to victory by 0.565 seconds over Austin Cindric. The win is the 34th of Larson's career, his 28th with Hendrick Motorsports and his second in the last three races.

Larson has also won four of the last 11 races at Kansas. He led 235 of 267 laps on Sunday and swept the stages while running the fastest lap of the race, earning a maximum of 76 points. Larson leads Denny Hamlin by 26 points with six races left in the season. 

"I think it's easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted," Larson told USA Network. "[Briscoe] got in front of me; he started getting really loose. Such a good day, max points. I was going to be happy with second the way the race went. My whole team, they were on it all day."

Notable results

Cindric finished runner-up, while Hamlin snuck by Briscoe for third. Briscoe and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five, with Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece completing the top 10. 

Other notable finishers include Tyler Reddick in 11th, Daniel Suarez in 14th, Ty Gibbs in 17th, Joey Logano in 20th, Chris Buescher in 23rd and Carson Hocevar in 33rd. Brad Keselowski in 12th was the highest-finishing non-Chase driver.