NASCAR Hollywood Casino 400 takeaways: Kyle Larson overcomes late challenge from Chase Briscoe to win at Kansas

Larson had already taken the points lead away from Denny Hamlin after the Bristol Night Race, but he has now stretched the advantage to 26 with six races remaining. He has four top-five finishes to begin the Chase and two more 1.5-mile races in the next two weeks, which could spell trouble for the rest of the field.

The pressure continues to build for Denny Hamlin

A third-place finish and a 51-point day - third-most in the race - is typically nothing to walk away from disappointed, but that is the situation Hamlin currently finds himself in as his points lead entering the Chase has completely been wiped out.

It was his sixth top-five finish in as many traditional 1.5-mile races this season, but many expected him to be the one in victory lane on Sunday. Instead, Larson continues to look like his biggest threat to the championship going into next Sunday's race at Las Vegas, a track Hamlin has won the last two races at.

Joey Logano's title hopes take a hit

Even after winning his third race in nine weeks at Bristol, the three-race stretch at 1.5-mile tracks was a concern for the three-time champion considering his performance on those layouts all season.

While he scored points in both stages, his race quickly unraveled, beginning with this slow stop during the Stage 2 caution when his jackman lost the jack briefly.

Logano ultimately fell to 20th and lost 51 points to Larson. With two more mile-and-a-halves on deck the next two weeks, Logano will need to find something, especially considering his Team Penske teammates Cindric (second) and Ryan Blaney (fifth) came away with top-five finishes.

Carson Hocevar's race derailed in multi-car restart crash

If the post-race fight with Blaney at Bristol was not enough, Hocevar once again found himself in the headlines at Kansas after making contact with Ty Gibbs and triggering a multi-car wreck on the Lap 122 restart.

The crash also involved Chase driver Bubba Wallace and non-Chase drivers Josh Berry, Zane Smith and Erik Jones, but the fact that Brad Keselowski was behind Hocevar on the restart was enough to attract attention, considering the run-in between the two at Darlington.

While it was debatable whether the 12th-place finisher Keselowski aided Hocevar's contact with Gibbs and made slight contact with his bumper as Hocevar tried to make a move through the middle, it completely changed the complexion of Hocevar's race and plummeted him to 33rd in the final running order.