The Biggest Winners and Losers From NASCAR's Kansas Chase Race

Kyle Larson separated himself from the championship field, Austin Cindric nearly stole a win and several contenders left Kansas watching their title hopes disappear in a hurry.

Kansas wasn't the wildest race of the Chase.

That didn't stop it from doing serious damage to the championship standings.

Kyle Larson is obviously the biggest winner.

There is nothing complicated about scoring 76 out of 76 available points. Larson won both stages, earned the fastest-lap bonus, led 235 laps and won the race. A one-point championship lead entering Kansas became 26 points by the time everyone loaded the haulers.

That's not just a good day.

That's a championship statement.

Austin Cindric deserves the next spot on the winners side.

Cindric started 11th and finished second despite repeatedly losing ground on pit road. NASCAR noted that the No. 2 lost positions during each of its first three stops, and Cindric later lost valuable time by pitting one lap after Larson and Briscoe during the final green-flag cycle. He still finished only 0.565 seconds behind Larson.

The HFTS crew spent much of the post-race discussion wondering how much better the No. 2's afternoon could have been with cleaner pit stops. Watching Cindric repeatedly give away track position only to drive back toward the front became one of the most frustrating subplots of the race.

His championship deficit is still enormous, but finishing second and scoring 52 points is exactly the kind of afternoon Cindric needed.

Chase Briscoe also belongs in the positive column — with an asterisk the size of Kansas.

Briscoe started 23rd, drove all the way to the front and actually passed Larson for the lead during the final run. For 23 laps, he had the championship-saving performance his season desperately needed.

Then the car got too loose.

Larson passed him back with seven laps remaining, and Briscoe hit the wall enough times late that both Cindric and Hamlin also got around him. He finished fourth.

So is fourth from 23rd a great race?

Absolutely.

Did Briscoe leave happy?

Probably not.

He now sits 123 points behind Larson and acknowledged afterward that his championship opportunity is likely slipping away.

Denny Hamlin lands somewhere in the middle.

A third-place finish and 51 points would normally qualify as an excellent afternoon. The problem is Larson.

Hamlin entered Kansas one point behind the No. 5 and left 26 behind. He ran well. He survived. He finished on the podium.

And he still lost 25 points to his primary championship rival.

That's how good Larson was.

Further down the standings, things get ugly.

Joey Logano might be the biggest loser.

One week removed from winning Bristol and moving within 16 points of the championship lead, Logano started Kansas from the pole and finished 20th. He scored only 25 points and fell to fourth in The Chase, now 67 behind Larson.

That is the exact opposite of the momentum Team Penske hoped to carry into this stretch of mile-and-a-half tracks.

Carson Hocevar's championship situation got even worse.

He finished fourth in Stage 1 and appeared capable of another respectable afternoon before the Lap 123 restart wreck. Hocevar made contact with Ty Gibbs while trying to move behind Chase Elliott, triggering an accident that also caught Wallace, Jones and Berry.

Hocevar stayed in the race but finished 33rd, three laps down.

He is now 150 points behind Larson.

The entertaining storyline around Hocevar, Blaney and Keselowski may continue.

The championship storyline is rapidly disappearing.

Tyler Reddick's afternoon was one of the strangest.

His Toyota looked awful early. Reddick dropped from 15th to the 30s and failed to score a single stage point. Yet the No. 45 improved dramatically as the race progressed and recovered to finish 11th despite a slow final pit stop.

That's an impressive recovery.

It's also nowhere near enough.

Reddick is now more than 100 points behind Larson with six races remaining.

Ryan Blaney has the same problem.

Fifth place at Kansas is objectively good, especially after starting 25th.

The championship doesn't care.

Blaney is 91 points back.

Christopher Bell finished sixth and remains third in the standings, but his gap grew to 50. That's still recoverable, especially with race wins carrying such a massive premium, but Kansas was another reminder that top-six finishes aren't enough if Larson keeps scoring 70-plus points.

Then there is Hendrick Motorsports.

Larson won.

William Byron finished seventh.

Chase Elliott climbed from 18th to eighth.

Even Alex Bowman gained 15 positions from his 33rd starting spot to finish 18th.

Earlier this year, Hendrick's mile-and-a-half program wasn't inspiring much confidence.

Kansas looked very different.

That's probably the part of Sunday's race everyone else should be paying attention to.

Larson already had the championship lead.

Now the No. 5 might have found its intermediate-track speed too.

There are worse things than having a bad race in September.

One of them is watching the championship leader get faster.