Kyle Larson got back to winning ways by emerging victorious in the NASCAR O’Reilly Cup Series race at Las Vegas on Saturday. It was his 18th victory in the series and came in his first start of the season.
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Chase Briscoe, who finished as the runner-up, explained to the press what made Larson so good and set him apart from the rest of the pack. “That’s Kyle Larson for you,” he began.
“He is just really, really good. Especially at this level, right? The caliber of the field is just more inexperienced. So, you got a guy that is that experienced, they’re able to just make smart decisions and put themselves in the right spot at the right time,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver added.
While Briscoe doesn’t think Larson’s was the best car on the field on the day, he did acknowledge that he put together the race better than anybody else did. That’s something Larson would agree with as well. He mentioned in his post-race interview that he faced handling issues with his car and that he couldn’t get a lot of speed around the corners.
“It’s a nice confidence booster with how our Cup season obviously has started.”@chasebriscoe finishes runner up in the #NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at Las Vegas.
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— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) March 15, 2026
However, he finished a couple of seconds ahead of Briscoe in the No. 19 car. Sheldon Creed, Sammy Smith, and Justin Allgaier rounded up the rest of the top five positions. Larson’s effort came in the No. 88 JR Motorsports car. He gifted the Dale Earnhardt Jr. co-owned organization its third consecutive win after Shane van Gisbergen won in COTA and Allgaier won in Phoenix.
Larson enters Vegas on Sunday as the favorite to win
We are in the fifth race weekend of the season. Larson sits 10th on the points table, over 100 points behind the points leader, Tyler Reddick. With the Chase format in play, he needs to secure a win before it gets too late to catch up. Fortunately, he has momentum on his side. He finished sixth in COTA and third in Phoenix.
Vegas is a track where he has been strong at in the past. The odds are that he makes use of his expertise and secures maximum points. Furthermore, he has six race wins in 1.5-mile tracks in the Next Gen ear, more than twice the next driver. That stat presents more reason to be optimistic.
He rides a 28-race winless streak heading to the green flag on Sunday. Its the longest since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. Hopefully, he will complete a doublesweep this weekend and position himself to defend his title.
